Hello fellow CelestronLife members! This is my first post in this blog, so I thought I'd share an awesome story from today.

This morning, I left for college at 9am. My college is kinda far, all the way in Queens, NY. I got to my college around 9:40am. I decided to go to the student lounge and just wait around for my class. Not too long after I received a phone call from my mom, telling me that this big box came this morning (not too long after I left for school). Unfortunately, I was stuck in my college all day, so I was awaiting the moment until I'd get home! My dad finally came to pick me up at around 4:40pm, and I was on the way home. And with the terrible traffic, it took a little over an hour to get home. I finally got home, and saw this big box staring at me. Knowing that my parents weren't awaiting anything that big, I decided to take it upstairs to my room and check it out! Of course, while dragging it up the stairs, I got stuck on the stairs cause the box was too big for the staircase. I got a help from my dad, and we carried it to my room. There I was left alone with the box again. Then I had only one question......

So I decided that I might as well, just open the box and take a good look at what is inside. I cut the yellow lines, and then I had to cut the tape of the box. It was weird, cause one side of the box was really heavy, and the other side was really light. What kind of an unbalanced thing could it be, huh? Made me wonder for a little while.... So as I was opening it, I noticed a box in a box. Strange.. who sends a box in a box? Well, I opened the flaps of the brown cardboard box and I saw this big beautiful box with a really nice picture...... The box in a box happened to be a ..............

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AstroMaster 130EQ-MD!

I jumped for joy! This unbalanced heavy box happened to be a telescope! A good telescope for an amatuer. I took the blue Celestron box out of the brown box, basically dragged it out of the brown box, cause the blue Celestron box was pretty heavy.... So I took it out, and took the cover off of the blue box. And what do you know..... there were more boxes!

So I was digging through them, and found some really interesting things. Two of the small boxes were extremely heavy, and I thought my hand was gonna fall off. But I took all the boxes out, and started opening them! I jumped more with joy. But the real "fun" was gonna be to actually put this together. That's probably the least favorite part in this thing. So I was taking all these different things out of these million boxes..... I called my dad for help, who left me not too long after, because he was beyond confused. That left me and the telescope together, and me trying to put this together. Well, it was assembled together, but was it assembled together correctly? Oh I hope so.... My final image is an image of this beautiful blue telescope

And please excuse the mess in my room behind the telescope. Now I'm gonna have fun with this, most likely next weekend, since there are a couple more tests.... But hopefully I'll be looking up at the sky next weekend, and hopefully I'll be able to locate stars/planets/nebulae, etc. Unfortunately, I have this sucky out-of-print Nikon CoolPix 4100 which won't work for my AstroPhotography which I hope to master someday (soon, of course). For now, I'll either take "okay" videos of the moon, plus I'll have to ask my brother to take some awesome photographs with his Nikon D70.

Last but not least, I have to thank one of our own CelestronLife's member Justin who I bombarded with my Astronomy questions, and who helped me to make sure I got the right scope that is good enough for me. And of course, ask him any question I wanted and I'd always get an answer:)

Now I'm off to play with my brand new toy.. or maybe more of like try and attempt to learn all of this stuff and how to use it. Where have my memories from Astronomy 105 & 106 have gone?? One year of Astronomy, and I still lack all the info I learned. At least I saved my $120 astronomy book, and dug it out a few days ago. I know it would be useful someday!!!! Starting today....someday IS the today!

 

-EvaCZE

With sand, water, stars and sky, the 13th Annual Astronomy at the Beach took place September 25 and 26, 2009 at Maple Beach, Kensington Metro Park, Milford, MI.  Astronomy at the Beach, more commonly known as AATB, is a yearly event hosted by the Kensington Metro Park and the Great Lakes Association of Astronomy Clubs (GLAAC) - the Ford Amateur Astronomy Club, Warren Astronomical Society, The Astronomy Club at Eastern Michigan University, University Lowbrow Astronomers, Oakland Astronomy Club, Seven Ponds Astronomy Club, Sunset Astronomical Society and the Amateur Astronomers of Jackson.  Major sponsors for AATB 2009 included Cranbrook Institute of Science, Co-op Services Credit Union, Camera Mart, Rider's Hobby Shops, Detroit Science Center and Celestron. AATB is unquestionably Michigan's largest public outreach astronomy event drawing thousands upon thousands of guests each year that are eager to learn about astronomy, space and science. Many Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, elementary, middle school, high school and college aged students attends the event in droves to learn and enjoy anything and everything about astronomy!  Guests also have the opportunity to observe through telescopes, listen in on exciting astronomy talks or just being around anyone else sharing the same interest in astronomy.

Celestron's Marketing Coordinator, Yasmine Rios, and I flew out to Michigan and represented Celestron at this year's AATB event. While back home in Los Angeles, our colleagues attended the big Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show (PATS), which also took place the same weekend. We teamed up with Rider's Hobby Shop's John Kirchhoff and Bob Justin, to display and demo our telescopes and astronomy related products for the guests.  Rider's Hobby Shops also helped to organize a children's treasure hunt, where kids were encouraged to view at least 6 different celestial objects through telescopes and learn more about what they saw from telescope operators.  Children also had to answer astronomy related questions and once completed (with or without help), were submitted in to receive prizes.  What a fun way to learn about astronomy!

                    

Cloudy conditions graced Friday night's sky compromising telescope viewing somewhat, but that didn't seem to put too much of a damper on people's spirits.  Guests were still gathering at the beach while excellent talks were taking place inside the main tent, many of which were aimed at families and children.  It wasn't uncommon to hear laughter coming from the tent throughout the evening.  Sky and Telescope's Editor-in-Chief, Robert Naeye and Rider Hobby Shop's John Kirchhoff were among many excellent speakers that presented that evening.  The Detroit Science Center brought along an inflatable, portable planetarium with a star projector which provided tours of the night sky.  It proved to be a big hit with all the kids and parents alike.  Yasmine and I wanted to go inside and see the planetarium show too, but the line was too long.  Maybe next year!  Next door at the Ford Amateur Astronomy Club's table, members sold cool, colorful, bendable glow sticks. It was quite a sight of seeing these colorful "bracelets" worn on people's head, neck and wrists while "floating" about in the darkness.  AATB definitely wasn't a dark sky party, but it didn't have to be to learn all about the cosmic wonders of our universe, and having a great time too!

                    

On Saturday afternoon, I presented a talk to GLAAC members at the Kensington Metro Park's Nature Center.  The topic - Celestron's Community Relations and an overview of Celestron's new optical system - the EdgeHD.  Highlights from "Celestron On-The-Go" included - IYA events, dealer shows and major star parties that we had participated in during the year.  Other topics included an overview of Celestron's social networking sites - CelestronLife.com and CelestronImages.com.  In addition, I really wanted to emphasize who we are as a company, and who we are as employees.  With Celestron on the verge of celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2010, we are moving forward and will be sharing in the celebration with our loyal customers and fans.

Before the start of Saturday's AATB event, Yasmine and I took a tour of parts of Kensington Metro Park's 4,481 acre grounds and marveled at all the great things to see and do here.  Although time was extremely limited, we did see many key features of the park including - hiking trails, picnic areas, wooded forests, wetlands, beach areas, wildlife viewing and so much more!   Autumn foliage was beginning to take shape, as leaves began dressing in their finest reds and orange colors.  We stopped at the Farm Center for a few minutes to visit some of the local farm animals including sheep, pigs, chickens, goats, cows and turkeys.  Coming from a big city, we really do not have many opportunities to see farm animals, so it was a wonderful experience.  What a thrill it was for Yasmine to see her favorite horses and sheeps up close.

               

While clouds were once again predicted for Saturday night's viewing, by late afternoon, the clouds miraculously parted just enough that left enough visible sky to commence the evening star party to the delight of everyone in attendance.  By dusk, the viewing area began to fill up with people, as telescopes of every make and model adorned the beach.  The Quarter Moon gracefully lit up the sky, and people pointed out the bright "star" like object in the sky - Jupiter!  As expected, the vendor and astronomy club's area remained busy, but the majority of the crowds were out observing on the beach.  It was truly delightful to see so many people from every age group interested in astronomy and excited to observe through many telescopes set up that evening. One example which stands out in my mind took place at Eastern Michigan University's C14 setup - after viewing through the telescope, a young girl excitedly ran back to her parents and yelled out "I think I saw M13!"

AATB 2009 officially came to an end at the stroke of midnight that Saturday night.  A raffle drawing took place in the outdoor pavilion immediately after for those who worked or helped plan the event. Several great raffle prizes were donated by many of the event's sponsors including gift certificates, DVDs, eyepieces and telescopes.  The grand prize was a Celestron NexStar 4 SE that Celestron had donated

                      

Yasmine and I left Detroit the following day and flew home with an abundance of great memories of AATB and of all the friendly and enthusiastic people we had met throughout the 2 day event. We would like to personally say "Thank You" to Greg Ozimek, official photographer of AATB, for initially contacting and inviting Celestron to participate; George Korody, of the Ford Amateur Astronomy Club, for providing us with information regarding AATB at the Florida WSP; John Kirchhoff, Manager, Rider's Hobby Shops, for supporting, supplying and transporting our products; the entire Greater Lakes Association of Astronomy Club's officers and club members for their dedication towards public outreach and for banding together to host this wonderful family oriented event for the community; and Kensington Metro Park for providing an outstanding nature venue to hold AATB.  We hope to see you all again at next year's AATB.

 

 

Hello fellow CelestronLife members!

I finally went out last night (Thursday October 29, 2009) to see the first quarter moon. The weather has been still weird, even during the summer..that thing called "new telescope curse" is really lasting way too long. This year the weather is just horrible, so I haven't had many chances to look up at the sky. Yesterday, I was out for most of the day and part of the evening. My mom wanted to return something to a local pharmacy so that was our last stop. It was a little after 6pm (still light outside) and I've noticed that the Moon is out! I decided that if we get home while it is still light outside I will take some during-the-day photos of the Moon. But of course I got home around 7pm and it was dark out. I checked if I can use my telescope from the backyard to see the Moon cause I really didn't feel like being on the front lawn front of the house.. So around 7:30pm, I dragged my telescope out to the backyard to my "secret observatory"!

First I used the 20mm eyepiece and tried to take photos. They were all becoming so blurry that I was getting pissed that I can't take any decet pictures. I managed to take only a few pictures with that.. here is one

Then for some reason I decided to use the 10mm eyepiece.... which I NEVER use for some reason. Most likely cause I think since it's a lower #, it will show a smaller imagine. But once I located the Moon again, I was stunned how big the Moon looked with the 10mm eyepiece. All this time I neglected it cause I thought it was worse than the 20mm, but now I see it's actually better! So for the rest of the night, I used the 10mm eyepiece. I took many many photos. They actually came out better... much much better! There is a big improvement in my astrophotography from last time, which makes me happy:) Here is one of the close ups

 

Then I decided, for fun, to play around with the color settings on my digital camera.. so I took a sepia toned Moon and cyanotype toned Moon.

And then some really awesome close ups! I also took many many videos. Some of them are close up, some of them are REAL close ups. I used the 10mm eyepiece for that as well. These pictures are in a bigger size on my profile, and a video as well. So feel free to check them out and comment:) I will also be getting Moon filters soon so I won't be blinded by the brightness of the Moon. I'm very happy about the outcome of my pictures since I was already getting worried they won't be as good. Now just have to get a better digital camera :-)

 

-EvaCZE

 

There are 7 software applications in my Astro Imaging tool kit that make image capture and editing about as easy as it gets: PHD Guiding, Nebulosity 2, wxAstroCapture, Registax 5, Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop CS4, and GIMP 2.4.

PHD Guiding

Craig Stark, of Stark Labs and well known imaging expert in the field, has a handfull of software applications that make the life of imaging easier to get good results with just a few clicks of the mouse. The first is PHD Guiding. Those of you out there who already have this running on your machine as part of your imaging setup may want to skip this section unless you want to recap the details of PHD.

PHD is Auto Guiding software that is used by having a second telescope, in conjunction with your main scope, or an off-axis radial guider, with an auto guiding camera, like the Orion SSAG. The user picks a star in the field of view for object to be imaged, clicks on it, the software runs through a series of alignment and tracking calibration procedures, and like magic (aka good engineering), it will track your target object across the night sky by feeding information back to the mount, essentially, training it to follow your target.

This helps your imaging output by keeping the telescope and CCD sensor centered on your imaging target for long term exposures. The longer the shutter is open on an object, the more photons the CCD sensor can absorb, producing brighter, more detailed images. Alas, star trails be gone!

PHD is a free application and works with virtually every ST4 type of autoguide system present in a large majority of guidable mounts out in the wild. Download it, check it out, and enjoy the benefits. Not to mention, it just feels really cool to have your computer running the show during an imaging session. People definitely exhibit the 'Wow' factor when they see this in action and for good reason: it works.

Nebulosity 2

Next up is another one from Stark Labs called Nebulosity 2. This is an image editing application that has the ability to stack multiple frames that have been captured of your target, average information, and edit the final product. The application works with RAW, TIFF, FITS, BMP, and JPEG format images. I won't go in to the 'how to use it' details, I'll leave that to the HOWTOs.

This application is incredible for being able to take the information you give it and have it come out ten times better. It also comes with the ability to control your DSLR or other imaging camera with the right connection from your camera to computer.

I know there are others out there, but they're out of my price range. Nebulosity 2 runs $60 for a full liscense. That's affordable and the benefits are endless. However, simply downloading it and working with JPEG format images, you can edit and save without the obstructing lines ... for free. On the other hand, if you begin to average lights, dark, and bias frames, you will want to purchase the full application liscese for obstruction-free final images. To get used to it and find out if it's for you, you can edit all you like for free, again, under JPEG format.

This application changed my mind entirely about Astrophotography. I had been discouraged up to a point. Neb 2 changed all that by showing me that I was capturing plenty of imformation with an unmodified camera. It wasn't until I started using it that I realized that so much more could be done with what I had photographed.

wxAstroCapture

This is another free application. This application works in conjunction with most USB CCD cameras out there. I think it was originally designed for use with the Philips SPC900NC, since the SPC900NC is the application icon, but it will work with a multitude of cameras.

wxAstroCapture works by giving you live-view video of your target. This software is great for planetary imaging. You capture exactly what you see on the screen, saves in .avi format which works very well with Registax. The controls are very intuitive and, as well, can work with an auto-guide camera if set up properly. I, personally, do not auto guide with this application, but it can be done. It's a lightweight, powerful application that gives the maximum amount of control over your webcam imaging. The best part is that it's free.

I first discovered this application because I run Ubuntu Linux as my main operating system and it gives me the ultimate control over my SPC in Linux. When I made an early summer investment in to a Windows based laptop, I was ever so pleased to find that there was a ported version for Windows. It seems to work incredibly well with Windows 7 Ultimate with the same level of control, so I would assume it's backwards compatible with Vista, etc.

Registax 5

Probably the best free application for stacking Lunar and Planetary images is Registax 5. This application stacks multiple frames in JPEG format, or better yet, handles all your .AVI import format needs. Most amateur Planetary imaging is best done by filming short segments in .AVI format and stacking the frames from those segments. By averaging pixels, subtracting noise, and multiplying details you end up with a more refined final image revealing a greater amount of details. Powerful RBG alignment tools, histogram adjustments, RGB balance, image rotation, cropping, etc. are all included in this comprehensive application. It's lightweight, fast, and the end results are pretty amazing for the details that are revealed in the images. Most importantly, it's free.

Deep Sky Stacker

A couple of weeks ago, I had a revalation. It's called Deep Sky Stacker. Up to this point, given my amateur status and lack of knowledge, I had been simply stacking JPEG frames and, well, just hoping for the best. For months after I got my DSLR, I bragged about stacking frames by hand, thinking I was getting the absolute best out of the information I was capturing. I couldn't have been more incorrect. All of my dilligent efforts aside, my eyes can't do what ones and zeros can do with a couple of 2.1Ghz processors to work with. Nor can as much be done with out finally creating a good set of Dark, Flat, and Bias frames and beginning to average for noise.

Every CCD device out there has one major crux. Noise. Some systems are worse that others, but all have some level of noise. Electrical camera noise from heat and long expsoures at high ISO settings ruins good images and makes bad ones even worse. I know because up until now, I had no idea just how much it mattered until the first time I stacked an image with L, D, F, and B frames.

DSS has a full set of step by step directions of how to create a good set of composition frames. Follow each step closely and soon you'll be producing higher quality images which are more noise free, brighter, and incredibly more detailed.

 

This image was taken on Feb 17, 2009 under amazingly stable skies. Of course, it was probably -8F degrees outside, but that's when it all comes together 'round these parts. Shot with my near and dear AstroTech AT66 ED APO and my [Unmodified] Canon 350D Rebel XT, this consists of 11 unguided frames at 30 seconds each, running at ISO 1600. Aperture is at the scopes' f/6 ratio, with no step down focal reduction, 1200px x 1800px full size (cropped) to 300x450 (scaled) for this blog.

The left image was stacked (by hand) with nothing but GIMP 2.4 and the image on the right was done with DSS and finalized in Photoshop CS4. It's a prime example of what you could clearly call a 'night and day' difference. Obviously, if I knew back in February what I know now, the image on the left would have been drastically different, even without the help of DSS or Photoshop CS4. But the fact is, if I can help any one skip right over the steps I took and get right to better editing, well, I guess that would be the point of this blog.

Photoshop CS4

If you have a few dollars burning a hole in your wallet, and the desire to have a very comprehensive image editing application, you may as well spring the coin for Photoshop CS4. If I ever wonder why I can't pay bills, it's because of applications like this and my desire to have them.

I won't go in to usage or details. People go to school for years to learn the Photoshop ways. So it's kind of up to your own dilligence to learn the depths of this application's power and capability. With the ability to operate in 16 and 32 bit mode for image translation of FITS and TIFF format images, some would say it's the be-all-end-all. I've used PS for well over ten years and I still don't know half of what it can do, but I do know that it handles noise subtraction and color level editing incredibly well and produces very pleasing final edit results.

GIMP 2.4 for Windows

Last, but certainly not least, or best for last, how ever you'd like to say it. As I mentioned earlier, I run Linux. Some time around 1998, I began working for an ASP, or Automated Service Provider, in eCommerce. Because the company was 100% Linux based, I had to scrap every thing I knew about Windows and jumped feet first in to the Linux world. Around that time Photoshop 4 was realesed, possibly even before. It was essentially reverse engineered and cloned to a very comperable application called Gnu Image Manipulation Program. GIMP for Windows followed suit (after painstakingly being ported to Windows) thanks to a developer named Tor Lilqvist. People who would like an incredibly comprehensive, FREE, graphics application that rivals Photoshop in virtually every aspect will want to download and install it.

I feel I know this application inside and out. I could retire if I had a dollar for every hour I've spent with my face plastered to the screen. If any of you end up grabbing a copy and running it and ever have any questions about its usage, feel free to shoot me an email and I can try and help you with any thing you may need to know.

In Closing

One fact that I have discovered in the last two weeks since my initial usage of DSS, TIFF and FITS format images are saved in 16 bit and 32 bit format and are auto-translated to 8 bit format in GIMP yet retain native format in CS4. [This is the proprietary software rights 'ghost in the machine' you may have heard about at some point. Due to legal and ownership rights, GIMP has not been upgraded to be able to handle higher bit format images. Ugh.] At any rate, for 90% of images I've done, the difference between 8 bit and 16 bit is negligible. CS4 seems to be able to handle higher bit depth TIFF and FITS format images resulting in higher quality final edits. However, in no way should CS4 be considered the definitive way to do every thing. Judge for yourself by using the applications and making your own decisions through your experiences.

I'd definitely like to say thanks if you made it this far and I hope some of you will download and install some of these applications if you haven't already. They're a great set of tools for people to use. Every one has to start some where. I got my start only roughly 2 years ago and every day is still a learning experiece. I pick up new details on every single image I capture and edit. Clear skies to you all, happy capturing and editing. Until next time, mb.

Hi everyone!

I finally got a chance to take out my telescope for the first time since I've received it..which was 3 weeks ago! Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been all that great, so tonight was my chance. It was a beautiful day with 60 degrees and cloudless skies. At night, it turned to 40 degrees with cloudless skies. So of course, I decided to get out into my backyard and just randomly look around, since I am not 100% familiar with the use of telescopes. I camped out in my backyard at 11pm (April 9th), to be exact I took my telescope out on the deck by the pool to be up higher.

 

And then I decided to move the telescope down on the ground, cause it will be much more stable than the deck. I rotated my telescope so I could see the moon! Of course it was a full moon, so I couldn't really stare at the moon through the eyepiece for too long, cause it would blind me (I'll have to get those filters)!! And then I decided, that even though my digital camera isn't so great, I'll attempt to take a picture of the Moon! I took a few, but only one was a decent one! I didn't use the piggy mount for my camera, I don't have any mounts to hold the camera to take the picture, I was holding my Nikon CoolPix 4100 with my hand, right up in the eyepiece. And actually came out with a decent picture :) Don't even ask how I did this, but somehow it happened

The Moon

April 9th, 2009. AstroMaster 130EQ-MD w/ Nikon CoolPix 4100

Then I spent until 2am talking to my brother on the phone, asking what I should do and where I should move it. Then had some troubles aligning it and actually finding what I wanted to. The moon was TOO bright, and lit up a lot of the sky. Plus it was very light polluted already, so it was hard to see! But either way, Im glad I got one decent moon picture, since it was the biggest thing in the sky! I packed up by 2am, and went back inside. So this is my first astronomy night with my own telescope:)))

EvaCZE

I've been a visual astronomical observer for more than 30 years.  For me, there's nothing better than gazing through the eyepiece and exploring the Lunar landscape, Saturn's ring divisions, the wispy clouds of the Orion nebula and so much more.  If you're like me, you've probably also spent many hours gazing through astronomy books and magazines in awe of all those magnificent color photos depicting deep space objects in mystical blues, pinks and a variety of other colors.  I often asked myself "how do astrophotographers take images like that?" Imaging always seemed really complicated, and I figured those that do imaging must have lots of patience, lots of free time on their hands, own high end equipment, have access to dark skies and perhaps have a background in photography.  With the advancement of today's modern imaging technology, imaging is becoming more mainstream and accessible to amateur astronomers, not to mention, getting easier and easier to learn.  Last September at the Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show (PATS) held in Pasadena, CA, I met up with my old friend, Dean Koenig, owner of Starizona.  Dean said "Kevin, hey man, you have to check out my new HyperStar Assembly for the NexStar 6 SE."  "It rocks man!"  Out of curiosity, I checked out the images Dean displayed on his monitor, and I was literally blown away with some of the first test images taken through a NexStar 6 SE equipped with a HyperStar lens assembly and a CCD camera!  Images of the Horsehead, Orion and Veil nebulas stood out in all their colorful glory with nebulosity filling the screen!   What made it even more mind blowing, was the fact that on some of the images, no guiding or wedge alignment were used!  The results were truly spectacular!  Why?  Because HyperStar imaging takes advantage of short exposures (20-30 seconds), so shots can be taken unguided.  Since the NexStar 6 SE is forked mounted, short exposures also meant not having to use a wedge to polar align the scope.  Talk about simplistic!  Of course, if someone wanted to take longer exposures, then yes, guiding would be necessary (to adjust for tracking errors), as well as polar aligning (to combat field rotation).  But for someone who's a beginner and wants to learn the easiest way to capture deep-sky objects the first night out and get amazing images, HyperStar can be the answer.

So what exactly is HyperStar imaging?  According to Dean, HyperStar is a multiple correcting lens element which takes the place of an SCT's secondary mirror.  Unless the scope is already HyperStar compatible, like the Nexstar 6 SE, the scope's secondary housing must be converted to accept the HyperStar lens assembly (conversion kits are available for those that are not). The secondary mirror is removed, and the HyperStar lens assembly is then screwed in its place.  This allows for extremely fast CCD imaging.  For the NexStar 6 SE, it's focal ratio is reduced to f 1.9 (31 times faster than imaging at f 10).  A CCD camera is then attached to the HyperStar, and used in conjunction with an imaging program like Maxim DL 5, for example, to capture, stack, color convert and save the images.  Dean says "it just doesn't get any simpler than that!"  To learn more about HyperStar imaging, I spent a few nights at Starizona to hangout with the imaging guru himself.  Dean and his staff conducts imaging sessions every clear Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings right in his parking lot.  I was concerned that cars from an adjacent road, Tucson's light pollution, lights from a neighboring Salvation Army, Circle K and a Waxing Moon would hamper the imaging session somewhat, but I was assured capturing good images were inevitable.  Dean covered all the basics with me from properly installing the HyperStar Assembly with my Starlight Xpress SXVF-H9C One-Shot Color CCD Camera.  He then covered how to collimate the HyperStar to get pinpoint star images (which is essential for sharp images) and how to rotate the camera for the best image orientation.  Using Maxim DL 5, I learned how to set presets for finding stars for alignment, focusing, taking test shots and more.  Video tutorials which covers these steps are available to download off Starizona's website.  These video tutorials really help out a lot.  Because the secondary mirror is replaced by the HyperStar lens assembly, my laptop screen served as the "eyepiece" and I went ahead and conducted my normal telescope Sky-Align alignment procedure and centered the alignment stars as I would if I was using the eyepiece. My first target was the Orion Nebula.  I took 12 exposures at 20 seconds each that seem like a good starting point.  During processing, I could always "throw out" any bad images that showed less than perfect stars.  Next, I entered in the coordinates for Comet Lulin and in a matter of seconds, Comet Lulin appeared on my laptop screen in black and white (color conversion is done during processing).  It's really amazing how sensitive a CCD camera can be because the comet was already beyond naked eye visibility.  I went ahead and made my exposures for the comet. High level clouds began streaming into sky, so we headed back inside the store, where Dean showed me how to stack and make adjustments to the images using the stretch and histogram features in Maxim DL 5.  This is where the user takes control and adjusts the color, brightness, etc, to their liking.  There really isn't a right or wrong way, as everyone has different preferences.  To be honest, it did take some time to make necessary adjustments to get the image to my liking, but it was well worth the extra time.  Please keep in mind that I'm a beginner to imaging and just learning the ropes, but I'm pleased at the results I obtained using HyperStar through a NexStar 6 SE in Alt/Azm with Dean to guide me.  Despite all the light pollution and Moonlight, my images looked almost like I took them from a dark sky site!  It was nothing short of amazing!  I never could imagine imaging being this fun and this easy!  The next clear night, we were right back at imaging from his parking lot with several popular star clusters in sights, and once again, we had a blast. 

I'm sure the main question most people have on their minds is - Is HyperStar imaging affordable?  Well, that's rather subjective, but I have noticed CCD cameras becoming more available and more affordable with improved features than ever before.  For me, it was time to take the plunge to learn how to image using the HyperStar method, and I'm glad I did.  I'll be heading back to Arizona one of these nights when the sky is clearer and the Moon is out of the way to learn more about HyperStar imaging, and take it to the next level.  Before I left, Dean said "you haven't seen nothing yet, and be prepared to get less sleep from this point on."  I think he's right.  For more information on HyperStar imaging, visit the Starizona website at www.starizona.com.  There's also a dedicated HyperStar website at www.hyperstarimaging.com.  A spectacular image of Comet lulin taken with a HyperStar C11 was selected for the Astronomy Picture of the Day.  A link can be found on Starizona's homepage.  Now if you'll excuse me, there's a clear sky tonight, and I have more imaging practice to do. 

 

 

When the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2010, Celestron reached a new milestone in its storied history by celebrating 50 years of optical and mechanical innovations in telescope manufacturing.  What better way of starting off the new year than by "kicking off" the celebration at the largest and most well known gathering of the latest in electronic gadgets and technology breakthroughs - the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).  Held at the convention center in fabulous Las Vegas, NV, the event drew more than 2,500 technology oriented companies from around the world, CES is the undisputed king of tradeshows.

Celestron attended the convention with a full contingent of representatives from the president & CEO, Joe Lupica, to his staff representing Engineering, Marketing and Sales Departments.  For the first time, Celestron had a booth set up inside the main central hall, alongside some of the biggest giants in the electronics industry.  This year, our Marketing Department came up with a rather unique looking booth structure which swayed radically away from the more traditional booth setups around.  At first glance, one could not help but notice the appearance of a futuristic galactic structure, reminiscent of a planetarium or even the LAX theme building.  Looking up, a huge mural of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) graced the ceiling of our booth, which gave our guests, an uncanny feeling of voyaging out into space and traveling amongst the stars!  The center of the booth was purposely kept open to give guests a more welcoming invitation to come in for a look.  It was really cool.  Well done Marketing!

                 

CES is always an ideal time to debut new and exciting products to start off a brand new year.  For 2010, we proudly displayed several new products lines, including several handheld magnifiers and a complete lineup of weather stations.  For our binocular and spotting scope categories, we introduced the new UpClose No Focus binoculars; a new state-of-the-art, fully multi-coated, BAK-4, Nature Series binoculars; a 25x70 Porro SkyMaster binocular; a new C90 Mak; an Electric Zoom spotting scope and a Travel Scope 50.  The telescope lineup included several new models such as the new entry level LCM telescope line - available in 60, 80 and 114 aperture sizes; a revamped NexStar SLT line - now with 90 and 127 Maksutov-Cassegrain optics; a limited edition, orange colored 50th Anniversary FirstScope series and a limited edition 50th Anniversary CPC 800 series - with a glossy carbon fiber optical tube, 50th Anniversary badging and gold eyepiece kit.  A CGE Pro 1400 HD, equipped with a DSLR camera, stood gracefully at the front corner of our booth which attracted many of the uninhibited.  On more than several occasions, it wasn't uncommon to hear people say "that's one heck of a telescope!"

                                

Several new products were recognized and received Innovation Honorees awards in the Personal Electronics category this year at CES.  These items included our Aplanatic Schmidt-Cassegrain optical system - the Edge HD - which alleviates off-axis coma and delivers astrograph quality pinpoint star images across a wide field; the LCD Deluxe Digital Microscope with the first 3.5" touch screen and 180 degree rotatable head - makes it perfect in a classroom setting; and finally, the upcoming LCD Handheld Digital Microscope with a 2.4" touch screen that's easy to use for children and educators.  All three products were proudly displayed at the Innovations Design and Engineering Awards showcase in the main central lobby. 

               

Our booth featured two flat screen monitors that played Celestron video clips for the duration of the convention.  We've concentrated and produced videos during 2009, and will continue to do so into 2010 and beyond.  One of the monitors, featured a touch screen which enabled guests to view our new 50th Anniversary mini-site.  This site came complete with an interactive time-line, presented the latest news, videos, celestial images, photos and even had a guest book for people to sign.  Visitors were also able to view a "sneak peek" trailer of our upcoming documentary titled "The Path of Light" which will be a 6 part mini-series that takes a closer look into the world of Celestron, its employees, astronomy, telescope making, public outreach and more.  Additional highlights will include interviews with professional observatories and even rock and roll stars!  Our guests even had the chance to submit their names for a chance to win one of the limited edition orange colored 50th Anniversary FirstScope.  At times, the line to submit names for the drawing became quite long, but nobody seem to mind much. The FirstScope is not only a fully functioning 76 mm reflector telescope, but is quite attractive and will definitely become a collector's item.  See for yourself in the photo below.         

               

After the conclusion of Friday's show, Celestron hosted a dinner party for their dealers, distributors and special guests at The Palm Restaurant inside Caesars Palace.  It was a very festive atmosphere with everyone having a great time catching up on the latest news in the industry, while making new acquaintances or reestablishing old ties.  After working the booth for several days, everyone looked forward for the evening's social and to enjoy a delicious meal.  President Lupica led off the evening with a motivational speech and a toast for having a successful 2009.  Although the economy was harsh for many industries, Celestron continued to pull through and keep growing, while taking on a more aggressive approach to all facets of the business.  When the evening came to an end, everyone posed for photos, and each guest was given a goody bag which included a 50th Anniversary t-shirt, cap and commemorative pin.  What a great way to start off the anniversary celebration in the new year.

              

The rage at CES 2010 was unquestionably 3D HD Technology that was announced from nearly all the major TV manufacturers in the industry.  Everywhere I looked; 3D HD demonstrations were being conducted outside on smaller screens and on giant theaters erected inside the convention center.  Sampling some of the 3D action myself, I was quite impressed at what I saw, especially having watched Avatar recently in IMAX 3D.  It's amazing how fast technology keeps evolving year after year, and the optimism and enthusiasm it creates by building excitement among manufacturers and consumers alike.  It makes me contemplate - what is the next frontier for Celestron?  It's been a very successful 50 years, and it's inevitable that we're already looking into the future to integrate new technology into our products.  Am I excited?  You bet I am!

Imagine for a moment of being on a tropical island chain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where the sea meets the sky in an annual celebration of astronomy and native culture.  It must be AstroDay Hawaii!!  The 8th annual AstroDay Hawaii took place on May 2, 2009 at the Prince Kuhio Plaza in Hilo, Hawaii.  AstroDay is the brainchild of former Subaru Telescope Operator and current Public Outreach Officer for the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii , Gary Fujihara.   As the story goes, one day Gary had learned about Astronomy Day from the Astronomical League's website and decided to use Astronomy Day as a way to help educate the public and bring an understanding for all the scientific research being conducted atop the summit of Mauna Kea.  One of his major goals for the event was to inspire youngsters to become interested in science and math at an early age.  At the same time, blend in a mix of Hawaiian culture and thus, the creation of AstroDay Hawaii began.  Today, with the tireless efforts of many people, AstroDay brings together astronomers, engineers, scientists, astronomy clubs, Hawaiian groups, celebrities, musicians, telescope manufacturers, schools, media and more with one goal in mind - to bring astronomy to the people, especially the children.

Because both of my parents were born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, it was only natural for me to take notice of this special event, especially since I had a long time fascination with astronomy and science since my early childhood.  A few years ago, I journeyed back to the islands to not only see my relatives again, but to also see what AstroDay Hawaii was all about.  One of the first things I noticed was how organized the event was since it took place inside a big shopping mall.  With every center of the walkways filled with exhibits and thousands upon thousands of people in attendance, I realized that this was a well coordinated event that took a lot of effort from everyone involved to make it happen.  No doubt, astronomy is big here in Hawaii.  What also impressed me was seeing professional astronomers from some of the biggest astronomical observatories in the world taking the time to speak with youngsters and explained what they did for a living in a way the kids could understand.  Some observatories had interactive children's activities that helped make learning about science fun, while another observatory brought their own portable planetarium to help teach about the nightsky.  I knew right away this would be a great event for Celestron to help sponsor and participate in when resources became available.

                   

As a sponsor of AstroDay with Astronomy Magazine, Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill and I flew into my family's hometown to participate in this year's AstroDay Hawaii event.  With time to spare before the big event, we visited my relatives, as I showed Michelle what the local lifestyle was really all about.  We then had lunch at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, visited the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory and toured the Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii, which we highly recommend to anyone visiting the Big Island who's interested in astronomy.  The next day, the sky was as clear as could be.  It's as if the Hawaiian Gods purposely cleared the sky just in time for AstroDay!  Hilo is notoriously known for its rain.  The view of Mauna Kea, with its observatories overlooking Hilo Bay, was definitely a Kodak moment.  This would be the first time Celestron officially participated at AstroDay.  Our table was placed near center stage in a prime location.  Assistant AstroDay Organizer, Kenyan Beals, helped Michelle and I get situated as we prepared our table.  Gary and his staff of volunteers put up Celestron posters throughout the mall, which to our delight, gave our company much recognition.  Setup was fast an efficient, as we displayed our IYA FirstScope, Handheld Digital Microscope, SkyScout, FirstScope sell sheets and catalogs.  Michelle also brought along 500 orange Celestron Frisbees, pens, beanies, caps, pop rocks and IYA posters to hand out to our visitors.  We displayed our raffle prize telescopes including the IYA FirstScope, AstroMaster 70 AZ and a NexStar 4 SE and brought along a NexStar 130 SLT to display as well.  At 10 AM, the opening ceremonies began with local radio disc jockey, "DC in the Morning" giving the welcoming speech, which was followed by performances from local school children, including my cousin's son's class.  The crowds began to fill the mall as everyone began to check out the nearly 50 exhibitors and watch the performances.  The Mayor of Hilo, Billy Kenoi, showed up a bit late, but all was forgiven as he delivered his opening message and gave a proclamation for AstroDay.  At the same time, the Celestron table was swamped by people who were filling out raffle prize tickets for a chance to win one of many prizes we had donated.  As the hours passed, scheduled performers took to the stage and entertained the audience with music, song and dance.  Hawaiian performers included Keoki Kahumoku, Sonny Lim, Brittni Paiua, John Keawe and Russel Mauga and friends.  Man, what a talented group of musicians.  It's so awesome to be in Hawaii!  As the crowds gathered around our table, Michelle and I gave a demo on the products we had on display.  It was great to hear all of the interesting questions about telescopes from all the people, especially from the children.  Our IYA FirstScope was an exceptional crowd favorite with its compact size, outstanding optics and unique tribute display on the outside of the optical tube of the men and women who made a significant impact in the world of astronomy and science.  Children got a big kick out of looking out across the mall and watching people walk by through the telescope.  Our Handheld Digital Microscope was also a crowd favorite which everyone found fascinating to explore up-close the items which were laid out on the table.  "Cool!" was definitely the theme of the day.

                  

Just after 2 PM, the Raffle Drawing commenced, and I joined "DC in the Morning" on stage to announce the winners.  The crowd was really pumped up, and I did my best to keep them on the edge of their seats.  We began by raffling off a couple of "Eyes on the Skies" DVDs, followed by a couple of "Eyes of the Skies" books which also included the DVDs.  Finally it was time to raffle off the telescopes and the crowd began to cheer loudly.  The winners had to be present in order to win.  "DC" drew the winning tickets as I announced the names.  To our surprise, a lot of the names we called did not respond, so we kept on drawing tickets until one by one, the winners stepped forward.  The grand prize, a NexStar 4 SE, was also not initially claimed, so the upbeat crowd urged me to draw again, which I happily obliged.  Finally, a shy, young lady stepped forward as the crowd moaned in disappointment that they didn't have the winning ticket.  Better luck next year.  Who knows what cool giveaways and raffle prizes will be in store for next year?  As the event began to draw to a close, nearly all of our giveaways were gone.  No matter where you looked, someone was either carrying or wearing our Orange Frisbees.  500 in all were given away and people were still asking for them up to the end.  To see photos from AstroDay, check this link: http://astroday.net/Hilites.html 

                 

At the conclusion of AstroDay, Michelle decided to donate our display NexStar 130 SLT to teacher, Alicia Hui, who was recognized earlier in the day as the winner of the 2009 Big Island Toyota Excellence in Teaching Award.  Alicia received the award for her selfless dedication and commitment towards her student's education.  Although she had already left the mall, Gary promised to surprise her yet again and present the telescope to her on Celestron's behalf.  As an added gesture, Michelle also presented Gary with an extra IYA FirstScope we had brought along.  It was a small token of our appreciation for all of his tireless efforts to promote astronomy and science to the people of Hawaii at AstroDay and all the years of his commitment towards Public Outreach.  AstroDay would not be complete without a star party, so later that night, my cousin Scott, took us to the Visitor Information Station at the 9300 foot level on Mauna Kea to do some stargazing.  A Celestron C14 and CPC 800 were set up, along with a 24" Dob and various other scopes around the parking lot.  We marveled at seeing Polaris and the Southern Cross together at the same time.  Views of Omega Centauri, Jewel Box cluster, Eta Carina nebula, Eskimo nebula and Saturn were simply amazing, even though a bright Moon was visible that night.  What a great way to end our Hawaiian AstroDay adventure.  Special mahalos to AstroDay Founder, Gary Fujihara, Assistant AstroDay Organizer, Kenyan Beals and all the staff and volunteers for welcoming and taking good care of us.  To all the raffle prize winners, enjoy and keep looking up!  Until next AstroDay!  Aloha.

CPC1100 and me

I have enjoyed using CPC1100 to look at stars with my naked eye. ：）　After all I have not owned astronomical camera. So I come up with using "Visual camera". This is the simple way. I look at the astronomy object and sketch it with penile. That's all. I may not pencil an illusion like an astronomy photograph; after all, I try to see too careful. It is my promise to be as modest as possible I can.

M57

This is the sketch of M57 in Lyra wiht CPC1100 and Vixen NLV 12mm eyepiece, 233-power "Aug 22, 2009". Ring showed white very clearly. The inside of the doughnut was whitish. The master of Ring, which is the centered star, not showed. The one-sided edge of Ring opened like a tulip bud.

The most distant galaxy I had seen yet is NGC 2815 in Hydra. It is said about 125,000,000 light-years and magnitude 11.9, showed extremely pale and elliptic. Then I unconsciously shouted "W,Wow!! It's is G,Great!" The exclamation reverberated around the quiet of the nigh over the clear sky. I noticed neighbors might wake up. Hereafter I must have nothing to say for myself under the night sky.

Then CPC1100 has been impressive for me. I want the high Cooling CCD camera. So I'm going to wark in earnest and save up for to buy it, do housework devotedly, as a result give my wife her OK. My Visual Camera will continued to move happily until "OK".

3-17-2009

This has to be the one of the longest period of bad weather I've delt with for a year, 2 weeks with only 2 nights worth opening the observatory, and unfortuantly one of these nights I had a problem with my C8, :( tonight is my 1st chance to image with everything in place, still using the 80MM for imaging scope I decided to attack IC2177 the Seagull Nebula, this target is one of those southern tree dodgeing targets, I was suprised to get 24x360second sub frames, and seeing was good :)

 

View Full Size

Camera  Canon 350D w/ir/uv modifiation
Filter 2" celestron sct lpr filter
Imaging Scope - William Optic 80MM w/.8 focal reducer, inline with 7.5MM baader spacer
Guide camera -DSI II
Imaging Software -Nebulosity v2.1
Guide Software - PHD 1sec subs
Mount - Celestron CGE
Calibration frames 30x360 dark 30x .3ms sky flats
Light Frames  24x360sec  temp 32 f  8:00 pm edt - 12am edt 12-17-2009
Stacked with Deep Sky Stacker
Processed with PhotoshopCS3 and the Noel carboni AstroTools

- Target 2 for this evening M101 Pinwheel Widefeild -

Posting to Follow

CS
John

Astronight observatory

Throughout 2009 stargazers the world over are celebrating the International Year of Astronomy, which marks 400 years since the great Italian scientist Galileo Galilei first turned a telescope to the sky. Galileo's discoveries launched a revolution in our understanding of the cosmos, one that's still going strong four centuries later.

While it's true that Galileo first glimpsed the Moon and stars with his little refractor in late 1609, he didn't make the discovery for which he is arguably most famous until January 1610. That was when, as he wrote in his book Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger), "Jupiter presented itself to me."

Viewing Jupiter at a magnification of 30×, Galileo was amazed to see it form a straight line with three stars, two on one side of the planet and one on the other. Night after night, the stars' positions right or left of Jupiter changed, and eventually he noticed a fourth star in the lineup too. Was Jupiter zigzagging against the starry background from one night to the next? That didn't make sense. Galileo soon realized that the planet's shifting companions aren't stars — they're moons!

On this manuscript page Galileo recounts the observations that led to his realization that Jupiter is circled by four moons at different distances from the planet

It's hard to overstate the significance of this early telescopic finding. In 1610, nearly everyone thought that Earth was the center of all heavenly motion. Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus had proposed 67 years earlier that the planets — including Earth — orbit the Sun, but most scientists thought this was ridiculous. After all, they reasoned, if Earth were whipping around the Sun, it would lose the Moon! Yet here was Galileo showing that a planet could orbit something — it didn't matter whether it was the Sun or the Earth — and hang onto its moons.

Galileo's discovery of what we now call Jupiter's Galilean satellites didn't prove that Earth goes around the Sun, but it definitely made the idea less outlandish. And sure enough, within a matter of decades, Copernicus's heliocentric, or Sun-centered, solar system achieved widespread acceptance — especially after the great English scientist Isaac Newton identified gravity as the force that keeps moons orbiting planets and planets orbiting the Sun. (Incidentally, Galileo's German contemporary, Johannes Kepler, figured out in 1609 that celestial orbits are ellipses, not circles. The International Year of Astronomy appropriately commemorates Kepler's contributions to science as well as Galileo's.)

Author Rick Fienberg captured this image of Jupiter and its four Galilean satellites on the evening of October 10th from his observatory in New Hampshire. From left to right, the moons are Callisto, Europa, Io, and (to the right of Jupiter) Ganymede.

As it did to Galileo four centuries ago, Jupiter is presenting itself to us right now. Just go outside after dark, look low in the south if you live in the Northern Hemisphere or high in the north if you live in the Southern Hemisphere, and there it is: the brightest point of light in the sky these evenings. If you know the constellations in this part of the starry dome, you'll recognize that Jupiter shines in Capricornus, the Sea Goat. The planet is truly dazzling — much brighter than any star.

If you own any telescope at all, I think I can safely say it's more powerful than Galileo's. It surely has a bigger and better main lens or mirror, and it offers higher magnifications than 30×. This means you can easily see Jupiter's moons for yourself. In fact, you may be able to see them in ordinary binoculars.

As Galileo himself noticed, the moons orbit so fast that you can see their positions change appreciably over just a few hours. Io, the innermost of the Galilean satellites, orbits Jupiter in 1.8 days — that's a pretty short month! Then come Europa (3.6 days), Ganymede (7.2 days), and Callisto (16.7 days). Since they shift positions continuously, how can you tell which is which in the eyepiece? My favorite way is to call up Sky & Telescope's Jupiter's Moons applet. Any of the popular desktop-planetarium programs will identify the moons for you too.

The Cassini spacecraft captured this stunning view of Jupiter, with the Great Red Spot at lower right, as it flew by at a distance of 48 million miles on October 8, 2000, en route to Saturn. Courtesy NASA, JPL, and the University of Arizona.

Sometimes you'll see a moon's inky black shadow drift across Jupiter's cloud tops, and sometimes you'll see a previously hidden moon pop out from behind the planet's disk or shadow. Planetarium software and the Jupiter's Moon applet can alert you to such events. I've been using telescopes for more than 40 years, and I still find myself watching Jupiter's moon-dance every chance I get.

In a modern backyard telescope, you can get a better view of Jupiter itself than Galileo ever did. He never mentioned the planet's cloud bands, which are visible in even a 2-inch-diameter telescope as dark and light stripes. And you can see the Great Red Spot, a gigantic cyclone that's been raging in the planet's southern hemisphere for several centuries. Keep in mind, though, that you can see the spot only when it's on the Earth-facing side of the planet, which is true for only a few hours at a time since Jupiter spins once every 9.8 hours. (Sky & Telescope has another applet you can use to find out when the Red Spot is crossing the center of Jupiter's disk.) And the spot's really not so great — it's a subtle reddish-brown oval, hardly worthy of its name. But it's still worth looking for.

So get outside this season and spend some quality time with Jupiter. Think of it as your Galileo moment!

It's been a long time since my last post as I've busy with my business and things have only just started settling down.  I thought I'd just share this little nightmare I recently had with my primary mirror and hope that it may help other "noobs" falling into the same trap!

I recently purchased a new astronomy camera - an Imaging Source DMK41AF02.AS.  Nice camera and much higher resolution than my old Philips SPC900NC (ToUcam III).  First light for the new camera was not in ideal conditions (poor seeing and windy), but I was determined to try it out as we've had a long period of bad weather (which is still continuing!).  The first images out of it showed a number of quite large dark spots, which I eventually narrowed down to being on either the primary or secondary mirror of the telescope.  On inspection, with the mirrors still in place, I could see a few bits of black crud stuck to the primary. 

Now, I've never had a primary mirror out before, and all the reading I've done on the subject suggests that this is not a good thing to do unless absolutely necessary!  Gulp!  Nervously, following the manufacturers instructions line by line, I removed the mirror.  With the warning voices of those who have gone before me ringing in my ears, I soak the mirror in lukewarm water and detergent and proceed to VERY carefully clean it, rinse it and allow it to dry off.

Let the nightmares begin...

OK, so the mirror is now dry and I place it back in its cell and tighten down the rubber mounts that hold it in place.  The cell is then placed back in the tube and secured.  Collimation is done and all looks good.  Whew!  Job done, and no breakages!    We're good to go, right?  Not quite - I have to wait for a couple of days before we get any clear sky.  Finally I get a break and take the scope, camera and laptop out to image Jupiter - hang on a minute, why can't I focus on Jupiter???  Must be "bad seeing".  Let's try the Moon...OMG!  Why does the Moon look like a big hairy white lemon?!!!  There is a distinct "sinking" feeling in the pit of my stomach as thoughts of scratching the primary mirror surface during cleaning come to mind.  Rechecked the collimation and it's still good.  Spent the next half hour trying (unsuccessfully) to get good focus on the Moon.  Oh dear...grasping at straws I think, "maybe the detergent left a streaky film on the mirror?".

...the nightmares continue...

The next day, the primary comes out again and, on close inspection, there are indeed streaks on the mirror (and the black spots of crud are still attached!).  Yes!  So, the mirror gets an even longer soak before cleaning again and this time is VERY thoroughly rinsed before drying off.  Feeling somewhat relieved that I have "found the problem",  the mirror is once again set into its cell and rubber mounts tightened down.  The cell is placed back into the tube and recollimated and the weather waiting game starts again - this time I am even more anxious to see the result!  A couple of days later I get a very small window of opportunity - it's still very overcast but the high wind is creating very brief glimpses of the Moon.  It takes me several attempts between clouds to get as good a focus as I can.  What the...?!!!  Houston, we still have a problem!  The Moon is still a big hairy white lemon!!!  My heart is really racing now, and that sinking feeling in my stomach just dropped out of my trouser leg. 

...waking from the nightmare...

The following day, I emailed a few people for advice, and one of them sends me a document on "optical aberrations" and suggests I compare what I'm seeing with some of the photos in the document.  Unfortunately, all of the photos are based on images of stars and I've only been looking at the Moon so far, so nothing seems to match up.  I wait for another few days for a break in the clouds so I can get the scope out again and look at a star.  Finally a small hole opens up and I can see a handfull of stars and quickly get the scope out to have a look.  What I see doesn't match anything exactly, but has similarites to the "coma" and "astigmatism" images in the document.  Progressively eliminating the potential causes that they list, I come to the conclusion that the mirror may be "pinched" - this apparently occurs when the mirror is too tight in its cell and causes the shape of the mirror to become distorted.  Given that the mirror is about 1.5 inches thick, I doubt that this is the cause but proceed to remove the mirror from the tube (again!) and loosen off the rubber mounts and check that they are still tight enough to hold the mirror in place before placing it back in the tube and recollimating.  It's several days again before the sky clears enough to check it out, and I'm a nervous wreck by the time it does finally clear.  The Moon is up too, so I grab the scope and focus in...........

...the nightmare is over!!!

There it is!  The Moon is back in all its big, bold and beautiful glory!  Sharp as a tack!  Jupiter and the Galilean moons look great too, and stars are once again pinpoint!  It's late and my wife has gone to bed, but I whoop it up and dance a jig anyway!  I'm exhausted from all the stress and worry that I've caused myself, and the cloud is returning anyway, so I pack up and head off to bed (I slept VERY well that night ). 

That was about a week ago and I haven't been able to get the scope out since and do some imaging.  The only clear night we've had since then was the night I had to give a presentation on Jupiter to the local astronomical society that I joined recently.  They had some viewing afterwards and we had a good look at Jupiter.  By the time I got home it had clouded up again and it has remained that way ever since .  Never mind, my time will come, and when it finally does it'll probably be an all-nighter!

The moral of the story?  Well, I guess one moral could be "don't panic!".  Another could be, if you're not confident in removing, cleaning and replacing a primary mirror - ASK FOR HELP from someone who knows!  And if things start to go wrong, ask for advice sooner rather than later - you could save yourself a lot of stress!

Clear skies to all!

Mike

Hello Everyone,

I am happy to announce the release of yet another documentary style video.  This one covers our flagship CGE Pro computerized German Equatorial mount. 

Please enjoy and leave your feedback.

Hello, everyone!  

What a trip it was - 14 days, meeting many very nice people, both locals and foreigners, visiting Shanghai and 3 provinces, the Synta telescope factory at Suzhou, Purple Mt. Observatory at Nanjing.

And of course, the total solar eclipse!  

That part of the adventure began with preparations here in the US, resulting in two complete photo rigs and approximately 20 lbs in photo gear. Everything was packed into one Jetpilot wheely bag of medium size plus a smallish Gregory Advent backpack. I had no troubles with the airline's size and weight restrictions.  

At LAX, I met Bob, Mike and Alan, fellow eclipse chasers who were on the same China Eastern flight to Shanghai. We swapped a few stories and plans.  

After a long 13-14 hour flight, I landed at Pudong airport, cashed a traveler's check into Yuan, managed to get my cell phone working and found a hotel. Then I had a hair-raising taxi ride from the airport to the People's Park area in Shanghai. Darting about and eventually ahead of all traffic, my 20-something Chinese driver drove like a bat out of hell, cutting from the right to the left and in between buses, trucks and traffic at about 80mph. He passed all others, including his fellow cabbies. I made it to Hotel 168 in one piece and had a good night's sleep.  

The next day I walked towards the Bund and the river when lo and behold I spot Alan at a sidewalk cafe. Mike joins us and we all spend the rest of the day having (what else?) Coronas, great Chinese food and fun sightseeing in central Shanghai.  That night I meet Australian videographer Anthony and his Chinese girlfriend Carrie. We share a very nice meal and plans at a restaurant off Nanjing Dong Lu. They plan to shoot high-def video of totality happening over iconic Shanghai structures. He's well-equipped, carrying several cameras and tracking mounts for the event.

Monday I move on to Jiaxing via train form the south bus station. My second taxi ride to the station was merely normal and the driver used a GPS to find his way. I check in to the Fortune Hotel, where I meet several other chasers, most notably Ron and his Chinese guide Jing.  

My plan to go mobile for the eclipse has its first setback. The hotel cannot locate an available English speaking driver or cabbie for me.

The second setback is learning that even knowing the language has not helped. Jing has called every number in the hotel's directory of local guides and drivers and she had no success at lining up anyone either.  

Tuesday the three of us try to see if we can move easily via bus and taxis to Moganshan, a high hill and national park maybe 70 miles from Jiaxing in the west and a possible eclipse watching site. It is a lovely park. Yet after 9-1/2 hours round trip, we realize that the possibilities of moving around Jiaxing on E-Day are remote. We are where we are and pray for good weather the next day. The forecast is for rain.  

So far on the trip, the weather had been generally good in the morning, with haze and clouds developing in the afternoons. The first evening in Shanghai featured a magnificent red sunset, while Sunday in the city had been hot and sunny. Moganshan was sunny with some hazy clouds.  

Wednesday dawns foggy. We meet at 645am and plan to scout out a couple of nearby local parks on foot for observing sites. We find a good spot quite nearby. At 8am, heading back to the hotel, the sun peeks out, encouraging us on our way. Alas, soon after we get to the hotel, rain begins, heavy and steady. All we can do is wait in the lobby, watching the torrent come down. As second contact nears, I take most of the gear back up to my tenth floor room and set up a tripod, photographing the city at intervals, watching it get dark and lights come on.  

At totality, I run downstairs and outside. The rain has lightened and the excitement of the nightlike darkness in the midmorning has gripped everyone.  

I run back upstairs. The sky lightens abruptly. Third contact. Ron calls, saying the sun is out. I look down at rooftops seeing people looking up with solar filters and sun goggles. Specular reflections glint off car windows.  

I dash downstairs with one camera, zoom lens and solar filter. At the front door, people are peering at the sky, catching glimpses of the partial eclipse through clouds. I manage to get off two shots before the clouds close again for good and the rain starts again as a sprinkle.  

I join Ron at the park. He is unluckier than I am and has not been able to get a shot of the sun. It refuses to reemerge and after 20 or so minutes, we adandon the attempt.  

Later in the day I take the bus to Hangzhou. At the taxi stand, I spot a man with a solar eclipse t-shirt and ask: "Did you see it?" "Yes, just one minute of totality!" So, there were a few people in the region who got lucky and saw the bad weather eclipse after all.  

I check into a very nice hotel right on West Lake and have a very good dinner of fish with lime grass. Ah, I'm in China and will have a good trip despite the eclipse washout.  

But the day is not over. As I head back to the lake and hotel in evening darkness, my foot is caught by something behind a row of scooters. I'm hurt! I stumble on back to the hotel and ice up what I learn later is a broken foot.  

The rest of the trip? That is many stories. In brief, I continue with my foot up Huangshan and loop back to Shanghai over the next eight days.  

Stay tuned for more on this adventure!

Here are my photo results from Eclipse Day, July 22, 2009, Jiaxing.

Time sequence: Eclipse Nightfall, Jiaxing

Direct link for best view: http://www.shadowcasterpress.com/albums/TSE-China-2009/07222009_Jiaxing.gif

Bleak weather after first contact.
Direct link for best view: http://www.shadowcasterpress.com/albums/TSE-China-2009/1_9674.jpg

After third contact, the partial eclipse comes out to play.
Direct link for best view: http://www.shadowcasterpress.com/albums/TSE-China-2009/2_9702.jpg

Post-totality partial eclipse.
Direct link for best view:
http://www.shadowcasterpress.com/albums/TSE-China-2009/3_9704.jpg

Hello everyone!

So as I've been told since I have received my telescope (back in March 09) that I'll have the new telescope curse, so the weather won't be all that great for a week or two.. I was excited about the new telescope and how much I'll get outside with it and attempt to locate planets besides the moon. Well, I didn't think the curse was going to last THAT LONG. It's mid-june, and the weather honestly sucks. Every day, it is either cloudy, around 60 degrees, rainy, or thunder..lightning... and basically and honestly there are no good days to star gaze. And when it happens to be nice outside and warm, it is cloudy, very cloudy. Hence, there were no new pictures or updates.

 

Even my parents agree, that since ever I got the telescope the weather has been real bad, and that we should return the telescope so we get nice weather again! No worries..that was a joke, I'm not returning it but as you can see, at least I am not the only one who thinks and noticed the change in weather since ever I got the telescope. So you can definitely say that this "new telescope curse" is lasting just wayyyyy longer than expected! It is supposed to rain for the next week and half, is it ever gonna be nice out? I got out with my telescope about 2 weeks ago, just by luck because the weather was nice, but the moon wasn't out, and the planets were few degrees above horizon and all the trees and houses and light pollution was in my way! So I ended up looking at random stars (aka dots in my AstroMaster 130EQ) without finding anything. And when I was bringing the telescope back into my house, I noticed Jupiter (I had to go around my house to bring the telescope back inside), but it was already apart so I wasn't gonna put that thing back together. Poor Jupiter was blocked by trees, houses, etc from where I was.

 

So as of right now, my lovely AstroMaster 130EQ-MD is a nice decoration in my room

 

-EvaCZE

This is a must see for any one who is a beginning Astrophotographer all the way the through the most advanced imagers.

I found this link this morning doing a search on Astrophotography Tips and Howto's.

It's called Imaging Acquisistion: Best Practices by Richard Bennion

http://www.ewellobservatory.com/bestpractices/player.html

It's a free flash visual online lecture. Be sure to update your web browsers (I use Firefox exclusively) and Adobe Flash plugin to see it.

The 45 minutes or so that it took to watch this was worth every minute of the time.

The whole lecture contains invaluable information about Polar Alignment, Focusing, Mount Errors and corrections, tips, tricks, etc.

I like to read as much as the next guy, but a live lecture just floods you with that much more information that will undoubtedly help even the most experienced imagers out there.

After watching this, and knowing a little about what he's saying to begin with, I feel like I just considarably upped my know-how.

One of the things he says in the lecture really stuck in my head and it was about atmospheric conditions and that was he 'never posts an image in April' and this is very relative for me because he's talking about post-winter atmospheric anomalies like poor seeing due to too much moisture in the upper atmosphere. That's tech.

Watch the vid.

World largest?...nah!

Well, April 4th has been and gone, and the public turnout for our 100HA event in little old Levin, New Zealand totally exceeded our expectations!  A world record it was not, but given our meagre population of around 20,000 a turnout of over 500 people was a dream come true for our small astronomy club.  Before the event our club had a membership of 65, but by the end of the night we had added another 100 members to our group!

Leading up to the event we did quite a bit of promotion - handing out flyers at shopping malls and main streets, radio advertisements (free community event bulletins), library displays, etc.  My company also donated a NZ$500 6" dobsonian telescope as a prize to try and attract as many punters as possible.  I was lucky(?) enough to be sat at the registration desk on the night and taking entries for the telescope draw and signing up new members, and I was absolutely swamped!  They just kept coming and coming all night (well, OK, until about 10pm anyway).

The weather, which had been quite uncooperative for the previous couple of weeks, could not have been better on the night - crystal clear skies and relatively warm, which I think contributed significantly to getting people out and about for us.  Unfortunately, being stuck at the registration desk, I didn't get to see through a telescope all night!  Ah well, such is life.  At least I know that collectively we brought a lot of joy and amazement to a large number of people, and that, after all, is what it was all about.

We had 2 main telescopes set up and gave everyone the opportunity to see Saturn through them and then register for the prize draw.  After that they were free to wander amongst the 10 or so other telescopes that were viewing other interesting objects.  Lots of oohs and ahhs could be heard all night.  There was also an amateur astronomer giving talks indoors and an information table where the public could ask questions and access information on astronomy.

Since then, I have immensely enjoyed reading about and seeing photos/videos of all the events around New Zealand and the rest of the world.  It has been an amazing experience, and I congratulate all of you who participated in this truly global event.  For those who are interested, I have attached a short video of our event below.  My apologies for the quality - the intro was shot using a handheld camera (a bit shaky!) and the remainder was shot from a static tripod (I didn't have any free time to move the camera around!).  Unfortunately, I also forgot to switch the camera over to "night" mode, so the footage is rather dark, but you can see how many people were there by the shadows moving against the background!  Hope you enjoy.

Cheers,

Mike

As many astronomers know, first light is one of the most important events of any new telescope. It allows you to look at a well known object and get a idea of how good your telescope is going to be. For this celebrated event, I chose M 31, often referred to as the "Great Andromeda Nebula".

Now, before I go any further, I need to tell you about the sky conditions here in Harleysville, PA. Lots of sky glow from light pollution. On a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the worst, my location rates a 3. The faintest visible star is magnitude 4.5 when transparency is at it's best. On this night transparency was just that but seeing was just moderate and M 31 is at the zenith. I dropped in my 20 mm Plõssl which gives me x37.5. I got a clear, crisp view with pinpoint star images. The brightest portion of M 31 is well defined and I can see M 110 at the edge of the eyepiece. I increased the power to x53.5 with my 14 mm eyepiece. This gave me the best view. The galaxies central region is stunning and with averted vision I can detect a dark lane across the width of the eyepiece.

Next up, the Double Cluster h and Chi Perseus (NGC 869 & NGC 884). For this I dropped in the 25 mm Plössl that was supplied with the Celestron Omni XLT 150R. I don't know much about this eyepiece except that it gives me x30. The entire Double Cluster is visible in the eyepiece. What a sight!. The star images are pinpoint sharp, clear to the edge of the FOV. The Double Cluster has always been one of my favorite deep sky objects.

Out-of-the-box, the Celestron Omni XLT 150R is easy to assemble, setup and use. Take your time to balance this instrument. A little trial and error is all it takes. This telescope offers clear, crisp views and is a good value for the money. I'd recommend the Celestron Omni XLT 150R to any beginner or intermediate level amateur astronomer.

Clear Skies,

90mm

Just a few miles south down Interstate 110 from Celestron headquarters in the port city of San Pedro, California, resides the Toberman Neighborhood Center. This multi-purpose, non-profit community center provides various social services to nearly 14,000 inner-city individuals and families in need of assistance.  The center's mission is to help those to "get back on their feet" and reclaim their lives by providing tools and resources through counseling, teaching and training.  This includes working with children, teens, families, adults and senior citizens within the community. 

On Monday, October 26, 2009, the Toberman Neighborhood Center hosted the "Toberman Meets the Man on the Moon" event which Celestron Marketing Coordinator, Yasmine Rios; Technical Support Representative, Derek "DarkMatters" Wallentinsen and I attended.  The evening began with an official presentation by Celesron of a NexStar 102 SLT to the Toberman Neighborhood Center.  Robert Brandin, who helped organize the event, served as the Master of Ceremonies.  Speeches were given by the President and CEO of the Toberman Neighborhood Center, Gloria Lockhart and Consultant, Fund Developer, Kristy Day.  Robert introduced Yasmine to the audience, and she thanked the Toberman Neighborhood Center for their years of services to the community.  Yasmine then spoke words of inspiration to all the children in the audience as they sat and listened attentively.  I spoke next and told my personal story of how I was once given the opportunity to look through someone's telescope when I was their young age, and how it inspired me to have a lifelong interest in astronomy and telescopes.   I made sure to let the children know that their generation will be our future scientists, astronomers, teachers or even astronauts as long as they follow their dreams and keep studying hard.  They could become anything they want to be.  The children were given a few minutes to pick my brain and ask me various astronomy related questions.  I was quite amazed at the types of space related questions these 5 to 7 year olds were coming up with. The interest level about space was definitely there!  With time being limited, the hosts wrapped up the question and answer session and moved everyone outside. The much anticipated telescope viewing was ready to begin.

              

The hosts laid out the ground rules such as no running, no touching the scopes, etc.  Yasmine passed out lighted glow rings that really got the children excited, including some of the adults.  Our Technical Support Representative, Derek "DarkMatters" Wallentinsen was already outside waiting with a vast array of telescopes, including his NexStar 5, Onyx 80, as well as my NexStar 6 SE.  Joe Hellum, the Toberman's resident astronomer and math tutor, set up the new NexStar 102 SLT.  With all the telescopes already aligned and aimed at the Moon or Jupiter, the children formed lines and began taking in the views.  How exciting it was to hear the kids counting how many moons they could see around Jupiter and scanning in amazement over the lunar terrain.  You know what?  That's something we just never get tired of hearing.  The excitement of people, both young and old alike, enjoying and taking in the views of the night sky never gets old.  If we inspired and sparked just one child's interest that evening to think astronomy and science is cool, then it was all worth it.   We're confident many people discovered and experienced something new.  When a mother and her young son took their first glimpses of Jupiter, I heard the little boy say "when I grow up, I want to be an astronaut."  I said to myself "you know something, he may just become one."  We wish the Toberman Neighborhood Center many clear nights using their new telescope to explore and open up new worlds to all the members of your center.  When you're ready to host another star party, we'll be back.

 

 

Thursday 9th October, 2009, 3.00am.  In just 90 minutes time, NASA was to crash a lunar probe LCROSS into a permanently shadowed crater (Cabeous) at the Lunar South Pole.  Actually the upper stage of a Centaur rocket would hit the moon first at 6km per second  followed 4 minutes later by the LCROSS probe itself.  LCROSS was to fly through the plume sent up by the first impact and measure hopefully, water vapour.

The impact time and site were carefully chosen to allow all the big scopes - The Keck - CFH - Palomar - Hale - etc, in the West of N.America to focus on The Moon with a barage of imagers, spectrum analysers and the like in the hope of securing both scientific proof of water on The Moon and to provide a spectacle for the public.

The Result?  Well the Jury is still out on that one, but it was great to know that we were watching the Lunar South Pole at the same time as most of the major observatories in Western N.America! 

My alarm went off at 3.00am and I immediately checked the sky conditions.  The sky was 80% cloud covered.  But The Moon was in the clear sector.  I made some breakfast and checked again at 3.30am.  The sky was clearing fast so it was a green light to set-up the scope in the backyard. 

I gave my wife Debra the clear sky report at 3.45am.  Outside at 4.00am I began aligning the ASGT Mount - I didn't want the scope to drift too much when I was videoing the Moon at high power.  I looked up and there was now 80% cloud cover again.  The sky conditions were changing so rapidly it was hard to keep up.  There was some low fast moving cloud racing across the face of The Moon as we aimed our scopes skyward.

At the last minute I realised the hand controller for the C8-ASGT was missing from its case!  My cell phone showed 4.25am and I raced into the house trying to figure how the HC could be missing?  Finally I found it in my backpack *&^%  I had taken it to London Drugs to look for an RS232 Cable to connect to the PC.  I dashed back to the scope, plugged in and did a 'Quick Align'.  My cell phone showed 4.29am - time was evaporating - as I slotted in a 7.5mm E.P. with my Pentax Optio E30 (pocket digital) attached.  I zeroed in on the South Polar Region at 271x but couldn't quite decide what crater was cabeous ... 

The video was running as I again glanced at my cell phone and saw 4.32am.  The Impact had happened!  I stared at the 3" screeen on the back of the camera as the video continued to record.  There was no sign of a plume, no flash or sign of any kind of movement.  I had seen SMART-1 hit The Moon a couple of years ago - it was the briefest fleck of light - so I expected something more ...  I continued to video the impact area hoping a plume might develop but I later learned even the 200 inch Hale Telescope saw nothing!

Finally at around 4.45am I slewed away from The Moon - Orion was calling ...  I split The Trapezium for the first time with a C8.  It was the biggest view of The Trapezium I've had and I had to remind myself the cloud in the FOV was Hydrogen and not the low thin cloud in the sky above me.  I slewed over to Mars and found a small squidgy yellow blob.   I went back to The Moon and shot some video of mountains and craters near the terminator. 

I Looked up once more at The Moon around 5.45am and thought to myself, we came, we saw, errr, nothing!  But, if a plume had developed, if it had been front page headlines the next day, how mad would we have been if we had missed it?  I was glad to be pointing my scope along with the Hale, The Keck, The Canada/France/Hawaii Telescope at The Moon! 

 

 

 

 

 

My family did "Tsukimi" last night. We arranged "Tsukimi dango" and pampas grass on a table and keep the east window open. How do I explain "Tsukimi" of Japanese custom?. Well, well...Full moon last night is just Harvest moon. We've done "Tsukimi" at the night every year. "Tsukimi" spells "月見" in Chinese characters. "月(tsuki)" means "Moon". "見(mi)" means "Look". So "Tsukimi" is the happy custom to look at moon one time in a year. "Tsukimi dango" is Japanese cake. It is a rice dumpling and spherical form like full moon. The taste is the faintly sweet.

"It is beautiful full moon, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is."

"Let's eat dango early. I am very hungry."

After Tsukimi, I went out with Celestron NexStar 102 SLT telescope. The moon vividly showed through a rift in the clouds sometimes. I directed the telescope to the full moon and shot it by my simple camera of cellular phone looked into a 40mm eyepiece directly. Then I e-mailed the photo my older daughter who is at university and lives alone in Nara.

Meanwhile she sent a photo me. It was a sight of a classic and magnificent Tsukimi festival the ancient capital.

I realized that my family always has been connected each other under the sky. Full moon shed over the shrine near my house.

A short note about the mishaps that have befallen my trusty Canon 300D (Rebel).  I had the camera at prime focus on my Celestron Omni 150 XTL.  I'd just taken some nice shots of Orion.  I turned the camera to remove it from the T-Ring and for some reason it would not come undone.  It turned O.K. but just would not release.  I carefully tried about four times to remove it - but no deal.  So I let go and Wham! the Canon dropped about 4 feet onto concrete!!!    I thought the Canon was toast, but I picked it up to discover only the small settings window on the back was cracked.  Murphy's law - the camera would not come lose but the moment I let it go - hey presto instant release!!!  To stop Your camera doing the same, hook the strap around some part of the scope.  Simple enough, whish I'd thought of it earlier

The second near disaster was with a 250mm IS lens attached.  I thought I'd save some extra baggage by putting the camera with lens attached into my sturdy backpack instead of bringing the camera bag.  But as I got into the car the pack pack bumped off the centre console.  I thought nothing of it.  But later I tried to take some pictures and the camera would not operate.  I examined the camera to discover an alarming gap between the camera and lens.  Yikes ... I took off the lens to discover it had nearly been ripped of its mounting ring.  The ring was plastic and had broken away from the securing screw revealing some wiring and other lens internals.  It didn't look good for my $350 lens, but I got out my small screwdriver set and managed to take out the retaining screw and force the warped ring to seat back into place.  I retightened the screw and attached the lens to the camera and it worked - whew!!  Lesson two - always use a camera bag (a well padded one), instead of your back pack, jacket pocket, floor of the car, glove box (I'm guilty of all of these).

Well the camera is looking a little beat up now, but its 8 years old, still works perfectly and still takes great deep sky shots.  This would be good grounds for a new Canon T1i and I'll put that case to the wife soon I'm sure.  But for now just being a little bit more careful with the old battle torn Canon!

CPC1100 what is my most favorite telescope has been taken hospital for electronic trouble three weeks ago. I had been lonely. "Night sky is calling me" I decided to buy smaller and lower a telescope. I debated which I shall select. I thought "CPC1100 is the Queen. I treat her with great care when she starts to act under the night sky. Then I want a great guy to be with!" As a result I chose Celestron NexStar 102 SLT after my mind.

He started a full-dress astronomy observing under the clear starry skies last night.Below are my sketches with NexStar 102 SLT aperture is 102mm.

M13 in Hercules, Globular Cluster. by NexStar 102 SLT with 9mm eyepiece.

The central part was very bright and seemed like a ball crammed with minute sand. But I couldn't separate any stars.

M27 in Vulpecula,Dumbbell Nebula by NexStar 102 SLT with 12mm eyepiece.

It was difficult to draw the view rightly for me because an image I've seen photographs before hindered my optic nerve.At first sight it seemed spherical white cloud. I was looking at it out of the corner of my eye momentarily. Then arc showed on both sides of cloud and one side was larger than other side. It was true.

M29 in Cygnus, open cluster. by NexStar 102 SLT with 12mm eyepiece.

It was pretty. Quadrangle constituted four stars was impressive particularly.

M2 in Aquarius, globular cluster by NexStar 102 SLT with 9mm eyepiece.

The central part was bright. The periphery was pale widely. It couldn't be separated any stars.

 

M72 in the Aquarius, globular cluster by Celestron NexStar 102 SLT with 12mm eyepiece.

It was small and very pale.

The Delta-2 GPS satellite launch from 60 miles away in the Am hours of the 18th Aug,  6:30 am

 

It's here!  It's here!!  It's here!!!

Well, it's been a LONG time coming, but my XT10 Intelliscope (10" dob with computerized hand controller), the maker of which shall remain nameless here for fear of offending someone, has finally arrived!  I ordered this back at the end of January 2009 to replace my PowerSeeker 127EQ after I attended my first ever star party and seeing what a huge difference aperture can make.  Unfortunately I had to wait for the local dealer to amass a number of other orders so that they could ship them all at once, so the order wasn't actually placed to the US until March.  Then, of course, they shipped them all by sea to save on shipping costs!  I think I have driven my wife and kids loony while I've been waiting for it.

 

I've had to keep myself busy while I've been waiting, so I've made a Hartmann mask for it out of thin ply and a Denver Observers Chair as well, both from some DIY instructions I found on the 'net at http://www.iceinspace.com.au/projects.html.  Here's a photo of the finished chair...

 Folds up into a nice flat package for transporting too!

Anyways, back to the scope!  It got its first light on Friday night after the kids helped me assemble the dob base (there was NO WAY I was letting them even touch the alt/az encoders though!).  Unfortunately it was dark when we finished assembling and I had no idea how to align the finderscope with the telescope in the dark so decided to leave it until the next day to do that (I must be a bit of a sado-masochist to make myself wait another day with it all assembled and sitting in my lounge!).  However, watching the weather report on TV at 10:30pm that night and seeing heavy rain warnings for about the next week soon changed my perspective and I dragged it outside to attempt the finderscope alignment in the dark!  It took me about an hour and a half, but I finally got it aligned, only to find that the collimation was quite off as I couldn't achieve pinpoint focus on anything!

Grabbed the laser collimator (another new toy, which arrived with the scope) and the scope manual and set about doing the collimation...now let's see, the secondary mirror is not aligned properly and the manual says "Using a 2mm hex key", not "Using the supplied 2mm hex key"...aaarrrggghhh!  A quick search of the supplied accessories reveals that the wording of the manual is correct - no hex key supplied!  At this point I decide that Murphy's Law has been applied and grab a quick but slightly blurry view of Saturn and then the Tarantula Nebula before packing it up again and heading off to bed in disgust.

A clear head the next morning allows me to recall the el-cheapo toolkit locked up in the back shed that I bought about 20 years ago.  A bit of searching resulted in me emerging from the depths of the shed with a whole bunch of different sized hex keys - one of which was a 2mm as required!  Laser collimation was duly completed and now I just have to wait for the damn rain and thick cloud cover to GO AWAY!!!

But wait, there's more...

I recently ordered and received a Philips SPC900NC (ToUcam III) webcam, as I'd really like to try my hand at some astrophotography  Obviously, with a non-motorized dob I never going to get images like John Buonomo, but at least I'll be able to hopefully take some halfway decent lunar and planetary images.  Now I'm just waiting on the T-Mount and 2" adapter to connect the webcam to the telescope and I should be away laughing.  Have also ordered the Celestron 2" eyepiece and filter kit too (not related to the desire to do astrophotography - they were just really nice eyepieces!).  Most of these "extras" have been purchased under the radar...so don't tell my wife...please!!!

Until next time - Clear Skies to all!

Regards, Mike

	Welcome to the 12th issue of Celestron's 2009 Newsletter! Over the course of this year we have attended numerous public astronomy events and had the unique privilege to personally meet many of Celestron users in the process. We would like to thank every reader of our newsletter and every fan of Celestron products for your continued support and wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year! Enjoying The Celestron Sky - Perseus by Steve Coe Perseus, the Hero, is my kind of constellation. By that I mean that it has lots of different types of deep sky objects to observe. I get tired by having to chase nothing buy galaxies or nothing but open clusters. I need variety and Perseus can provide that, so let's take a look... read post » McGyver's Tips with DarkMatters DarkMatters is an active contributing member of CelestronLife.com. The latest accessory in the DarkMatters DIY FirstScope line: The Collapsible Dew Shield! read posts » Community Outreach with Kevin Kawai As we were moving towards the Thanksgiving holiday, one event remained on our calendar for the month of November - the Armijo's Family Daycare Star Party. Lead Repair Technician, Hector Antuna, who can often be seen representing Celestron at star party and dealer events throughout the southland, organized this special star party for his 4 year old son, Geovanni and his classmates... read posts » We really hope you've enjoyed reading this newsletter. Please submit your feedback here: http://www.celestronlife.com/blogs/entry/2009-Newsletter-Issue-12 Clear Skies! Celestron Marketing Team Event Calendar International CES 2010 January 7-10 Las Vegas, NV With more than four decades of success, the International CES reaches across global markets, connects the industry and enables CE innovations to grow and thrive. Celestron will be exhibiting our latest products at the booth # 7912 in the Central Hall of the LVCC read more » post your own Event on CelestronLife.com » Event Recaps by Kevin Kawai Sea and Sky Spectacular 2009 Jacksonville, Florida On November 7th and 8th, the 2009 Sea and Sky Spectacular took place in Jacksonville, Florida off the waters of the picturesque Atlantic Ocean. This much anticipated air show featured the prowess of the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels Squadron, as well as numerous military and civilian daredevils of the sky. The Sea and Sky Spectacular represented just one of the many featured events of the "Week of Valor," which paid tribute to the brave men and women in uniform of the entire armed forces.... « photo GALLERY | read Blog entry » Connect with Celestron on Social Networks:

As we were moving towards the Thanksgiving holiday, one event remained on our calendar for the month of November - the Armijo's Family Daycare Star Party.  Lead Repair Technician, Hector Antuna, who can often be seen representing Celestron at star party and dealer events throughout the southland, organized this special star party for his 4 year old son, Geovanni and his classmates.  Would sharing the night sky through telescopes be a bit too much for such young children at this early age?  Not a chance!  For at least a month before the star party took place, the children, ages 4 to 5 years, with the guidance of their teachers, Carmen and Luis Armijo, prepared for the big night by learning astronomy words and conducting their own space related art projects.  As the event grew closer and closer, Carmen explained that the children's excitement really began to unfold, as they were so anxious to look through telescopes to view some of the very same solar system objects which they have been learning about.

Before long, the night of the big star party finally arrived.  With the assistance of Repair and Returns Warehouse Supervisor, Daniel Fuentes; Repair Technician/Returns Warehouse Clerk, Flavio Dominguez; Returns Warehouse Clerk, Salvador Roldan; and myself, the daycare's playground was transformed into a field of telescopes ready to open up new and exciting worlds for all those in attendance.  Before the star party began, the daycare treated us all to a pre-Thanksgiving dinner, complete with pumpkin pie, turkey and all the trimmings.  There was even pepperoni pizza on the menu too!  A big "Welcome Celestron" sign greeted us, along with some of the children's celestial art works, drawings and photographs.  We were extremely humbled by the warm greeting we received and touched by all the hard work and efforts the children made with their special astronomy projects.  It was simply awesome.

After dinner, Carmen gathered the children together, and they sang a couple of astronomy related songs for everyone, including "twinkle twinkle little star."  Next, each child stepped forward and given the microphone, so they could read aloud verses from their astronomy projects.  This provided an early but valuable lesson to teach each child to not be afraid of being in the spotlight.  It was also a great opportunity to show everyone how much they've been progressing with their reading skills.  It was truly heartwarming to witness the children's smiling faces, as the audience and especially their parents, cheered in approval.  "Yes, you can do it, and don't give up," I said out loud.  The star party was then ready to begin and everyone went outside eager to see what's up in the night sky.  In fact, the parents seemed just as excited as their children to view celestial objects through the telescopes for the very first time too!

              

The Celestron team brought along several computerized telescopes, including a SkyScout.  In addition, Frisbees, glow rings and t-shirts were brought along as gifts, but Hector felt it would be best to present these items to the children until after the star party concluded, so they wouldn't be too distracted.  Good idea.  The children eagerly lined up in rows and were on their best behavior, as one by one, they stepped forward and peered into the eyepieces and saw their first ever views of the Moon, Jupiter and the colorful double star, Albireo.  Many came up with some really interesting questions such as "Is there people living there?" "How far away is that?" "What are those "stars" next to Jupiter?" and "Why are there so many holes on the Moon?"  How intriguing considering these questions came from 4 to 5 year olds with a young mind full of curiosity.  Parents were just as captivated, and were not afraid to display their emotions out in the open.  I guess we can all relate to how we reacted during our first telescopic views of the Moon, for example. However, in my generation, most of us had our first celestial views through small aperture telescopes, and not through telescopes like the CPC series!  As an added treat, the Space Shuttle Atlantis had just undocked from the International Space Station earlier in the day, and flew overhead like two "stars" side by side, right on schedule. 

              

The star party lasted more than 3 hours, and throughout the evening, Danny, Hector, Flavio and Sal, commanded their telescopes to seek out other fascinating objects in the night sky such as the Double Cluster, the Pleiades, Orion Nebula, and double stars Castor and Polaris.  One mother had to leave but soon returned with her husband in tow.  She wanted him to experience the amazing views that she and her young daughters had seen earlier that evening.  She said "I got addicted to the views and had to come back."  Hector also brought out the SkyScout and wowed everyone even more by demonstrating how it's able to identify, locate celestial objects in the night sky.  The audible narration proved to be a big hit as well.  

             

Unlike most of the larger star parties that we participated at this year, this star party took place to a much smaller and younger audience; however, the impact was just as significant and everlasting as the others.  I was proud of our Repair/Returns Warehouse team for volunteering their time to make this star party happen for the children, their parents and to the daycare staff.  Sharing the night sky with everyone is always such an enjoyable experience.  I wouldn't be surprised if most of these youngsters will always remember where they were when they saw the Moon, Jupiter and other wonders of the universe for the very first time. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The latest accessory in the DarkMatters DIY FirstScope line: The Collapsible Dew Shield!

Yes, it's necessary to have one - at least in coastal California. The foot-long tube will dew up after a couple of hours in the marine environment of Seal Beach, Point Vicente, etc. It happened at the very end of Galilean Nights back in October.

So, to prevent that from happening again, I went to Michael's craft store and spent a buck for the 12x36 sheet foam. It's closed cell and about 3/32" thick, cuts easily and is available in colors including flat black. (I've used it before with other materials to make a tube cap for an 8" SCT - good stuff!)

 

OK, measure the tube diameter, multiply by 3.141259, add fudge for overlap.
Roll your own! And use another favorite material, Weldwood rubber contact cement. Apply, allow tackiness (about 2-3 minutes), bond, and cure overnight.

It goes on the tube and extends about 5" out. I didn't want to make it longer because then it vignettes the light to the scope.

 

Fashionistas take note: color-coordinated.

And now for the coolest part - it flattens out and goes right into the camera bag I use to carry the FirstScope!

To use it, I just pull it out and work it a bit to get it back into round and voila: dew-free observing!

 

I still have left-over foam that I'll use this weekend for a C-5 solar filter sleeve.

Keep looking up!

Dark "McGyver" Matters

First, take a look at the hardware to be assembled:

This is the scope, an old dovetail bar (from a 4SE) plus two dive straps from Sports Chalet (6 dollars)

Next, adjust and buckle the straps around the tube. Initially you'll leave about a finger's width of looseness to slip in the bar.

Slip the bar in with the narrow side against the tube under one strap.

 

Now slip the bar into the dovetail clamp on your mount. Here it is an Astro-Tech Voyager. Tighten the dovetail clamp.

Pull the other strap over the other end of the bar and tighten the straps. OBSERVE!

A tripod works too, because the dovetail bar has 1/4x20 taps.

Here I use a quick release plate and screw it to the dovetail bar after slipping both sides of the strap over the bar.

Voila! A tripod-mounted FirstScope.

All this without drilling any holes. Same straps will hold to many EQ mounts, like the PowerSeekers.

Next FirstScope adventures: solar filter! rings!

 

L.E.D  Astrophotography!!

     The Walls i had are now Broken Threw!!

    First... my nature shot of the Blog.. I've been after this little joker for months..

     

  One Bat!!..my early eve,pre dawn Mosquito Hunter!!..(i'm have to find out if my G10 repair was done in a clean room,  8^/  )  

   The walls broken...

      The Iron wall Computer issue is fixed..not totally resolved but at-least is functional for now  

   The Brick wall mount shakes an Atl-Az movement in frames is fixed...mounted my 8" se tube to a Celestron CGEM mount

   This is my set-up currently (it changes weekly lately an will again in week with the "New Stuff" in route)    The CGEM mount,8se tube,80mm guide scope an guide cam,piggy mounts on with red-dot laser on other side,Lap-top HC connected with a star chart program an to use the guide scope...the homemade dolly's been holding up great in the background.is bout time i bought real dew tubes...heh..i haven't yet but if i plan on exposures after 3am, Scope/Lens heaters are must..lol..(in my first blog i said the to ritzy)

  

      This is cool to come out the house an look at in the backyard at night...Mass Machinery with L.E.D.'s all over them..

      

   After buying a Brand New lap-top..my ole ones is a 1.89 meg upgraded/modified ,6 year ole ,$600 HP with XP..

  My new ones a 2.1meg duel processor IBM with  vista 64..I fired it up,transferred files,updated,secured it..

Went to upload the guide cams software an Access Denied!!!....i spend 5 hours hunting why not..I'm now fully Vista Proficient...lol ..this is what i got as the error..(please excuse the brand)  

    

  I was on a 64 bit machine...I contacted the "Vendor" of the cam,  There's a patch coming out in Oct09'...8^/  

 I have purchased already a Computer-Less!!  guide package..It sure better operate better then this package or this clown going for his bowling pins...hehehe  

Now on to the Photo's  ..Some are Finals.( all these where took in the last 2 days).. i won't try an expose again till next year these M27,M57,M13  

 This the M-13 Hercules Cluster...

 

  The M-93 star cluster...

   

 The M-15 Global Cluster

  

  The Double Star Cluster..  

   

   The M-57 Ring Nebula  

 

    The M-27 Dumbell Nebula...

 

  This the M-16 Eagle Nebula..(aka Pillars of Creation)This was my Favorite photo from Hubble Space Telescope i saw couple years back..Now I've Photo'd it Myself from my backyard with carried out equip. in Orlando,FL with just 8" glass  over the Hubble's Huge Mirror

  

    Here's the M-42 Orion nebula early in the am..Question...,the Star Glaze will be solved with lens heaters??  I was T1i,to adaptor screwed to 6.3 reducer on 8se tube with dew shield..i own a heat gun from my business, i've used it but can't find where this glare's coming from, it's only in the am hours, so as to be dew somewhere

  

  It only creeps in on the edges with a reducer it seems..  

 Here's where i started out year an half ago,...Basic ole star's..but WOW if you have good camera equip..(i started out with cheap sony cyber-shot universally mounted,2.1 meg i think)  

 Rigel...

    

 

One my Favorite named stars to have to Nexremote software say...("Beatlejuice")  

     Betelgeuse

 

  I'd shot Procyon to, but in editing it went to the wrong spot an got deleted...heh..opps..

   It's now about 6am..The Dew's Insane,  i'm getting over running round with blowdryer (heatgun)..There's clouds coming from the East..But i can't resist...I want Mars!!!

 I go in the house, grab the G10 hook it up to the Contest 8se tube with lights on in the room...  I put it on a 25x7mm baader zoom lens accompanied with Celestrons x2 barlow,I algin it all up, it being universaly mounted then unscrewed it from the 8se tube an headed back out..  

I pull off the T1i/6.3 reducer an attach the "Monster Tower of Power" i call it an locate Mars...in short i went from Full  Un-Zoom  to full Zoom in 5 minutes or less...8^)

     Mars...!!

 

    (theres special Mars filters on the web i saw as well as a x5 barlow...hmmm..heh)  

   An that's it for this blog, the Walls are Broken, i can Expose All night...lol..Photo's People!!

  In Route next's... Filter wheels,Filters,GPS unit,Power pack,Comp-less Guider...(Hint,Hint...I'm getting Mobile!!! No more light polluted shots)..last i guess will be the Scope/Lens heaters...Dew's Bad...Enjoy!! an Clear Sky's!!!

 

            Bozo  

    http://www.youtube.com/user/YoudSayOmg  

   http://www.celestronimages.com/member.php?action=showprofile&user_id=2306  

Well, I couldn't wait any longer. I ordered a Starshoot II Deep Space CCD Camera. With the mount that holds a digital camera up to the eyepiece is just not working for me. I wanted to hold off a while, but I got the bug again. I know eventually I'll have to get either a wedge or EQ mount for long exposures but for now I can just practice on the moon and planets until I can get it down.

Not really sure how running the telescope off of a laptop is going to work. I guess it's all in the practice, and a learning experience. I could definitely use some advice!

	Welcome to the 5th issue of Celestron's 2009 Newsletter! Being a leading telescope manufacturer in the world has many perks. One of them is that we get to sponsor and therefore attend Star Parties all over the globe. So in this issue we'd like to Star Party Like It's 2009! What is a Star Party? A star party is a gathering of amateur astronomers for the purpose of observing the sky. Local star parties may be one night affairs, but larger events can last up to a week or longer and attract hundreds or even thousands of participants. Many regional star parties are now held annually and are an important part of the hobby of amateur astronomy. SPOTLIGHT: C-Row Star-B-Q 2009   When the nice folks from The Huachuca Astronomy Club asked us to sponsor an All-Celestron star party, we figured that it was a pretty good idea. In addition to donating generous door prizes, we decided to dispatch a team of highly qualified technicians to perform some free basic maintenance on attendees' Celestron equipment. So if you happen to be in the High Southeastern Arizona Desert on June 19th or 20th come star party with us at C-Row. « visit C-Row website | download registration form» NEW ON CELESTRON.com: Support Tab   Our web team has recently upgraded the Support Tab found on every product page of Celestron.com The new and improved Support Tab now contains: Setup Videos Related Knowledge Base Articles Manuals & Drivers User Groups Product Registration Tech Support Contact Form See NexStar 6 SE Support Tab » INSIDE CELESTRON: The Star Party Tour Bus   Imagine for a moment... being on a tropical island chain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where the sea meets the sky in an annual celebration of astronomy and native culture. It must be AstroDay Hawaii! The 8th annual AstroDay Hawaii took place on May 2, 2009 at the Prince Kuhio Plaza in Hilo, Hawaii... read more » If the tropical paradise is not really your cup of tea, you would have surely enjoyed the historic Prude Ranch near Fort Davis, Texas, a home to the Texas Star Party. Recognized as one of the top ten star parties in the world, we decided that this would be a great opportunity to attend such a highly regarded event, especially since Celestron has never made an appearance at TSP in recent memory... read more » We really hope you've enjoyed reading this newsletter. Please submit your feedback here: http://www.celestronlife.com/blogs/entry/2009-Newsletter-Issue-5 Clear Skies! Celestron Marketing Team Event Calendar 2009 RTMC May 22 - 24 Big Bear, CA Originally called the Telescope Makers Conference, the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference (RTMC) was founded in 1969 by Clifford W. Holmes as a way for amateur telescope makers to share their craft... read more » ScopeX 2009 May 30 Johannesburg, South Africa Interested in Astronomy, sky-gazing, astrophotography, buying/building a telescope? Visit the astronomy event of the year... read more » Celestron Day At Orion June 06 Cupertino, CA In early June, Celestron reps will be onsite at Orion's Cupertino location to offer information and advice. We will also be raffling off some Celestron merchandise... Stay tuned, more info coming soon to Celestron.com C-Row Star-B-Q 2009 June 19 - 20 RepoGazer Observatory, Arizona The Huachuca Astronomy Club, in cooperation with Celestron and Starizona present: C-Row Star-B-Q at the RepoGazer Observatory (RGO), an All-Celestron Two-Day Star Party and BBQ in the High Southeastern Arizona Desert... read more » post your own Star Party on CelestronLife.com »

16:48:32    2009-04-16

Well, this past month has been unforgiving, weather and other personal issues have kept the observatory closed...

last night was one of those nights,,, everything was perfect for astronomy,,,

I was able to get 3 images, M63 the Sunflower was the 1st taking this from dusk to midnight a total of 36x360 sec sub frames.

this was captured with the canon 350d and the C8 running at 6.3 or 1200MM, since the light pollution around here is so bad I used the CLS filter on this and got pretty good color results considering the conditions

next on the List was a Widefeild attempt with my Unmodifed Canon 350d with the 80MM and F.8 focal reducer, this image was taken from 12am-2:40am and I used the Celeston LPR filter, you should notice that the color correction is stronger in the red line... this is something of a aftereffect of this normally visual fiter,

To the Top is Messier 100 To the Right Is Messier 98 and at the Bottom the Spiral is Messier 99

 

last but not least is Messier 13 with the Canon 350D Modd and CLS fitler using theC8@6.3

this is the same camera used for the 63 image above. and this is a total of 15x360 from 2:40am-4:38 am

To View any of these lager just click on the images to load a larger view

 

Tonight looks like another Clear night, I will be attempting another group of galaxies...

so many to choose from....... mmmm which will it be

M101 ? M104 ? Leo Trio?

maybe all of these??

More to follow

Clear Skies

John

 

 

	Introducing FirstScope Portable Telescope Welcome to the 3rd issue of Celestron's 2009 Newsletter. In celebration of International Year Of Astronomy 2009, Celestron is proud to announce our brand new FirstScope Telescope. Named Official Product of International Year of Astronomy 2009, FirstScope pays tribute to the men and women who brought us one step closer to understanding the universe around us! Be one of the first people to own a piece of history by pre-ordering the FirstScope Telescope from Celestron.com. SPOTLIGHT: Comet Lulin   In February of this year, Comet Lulin presented earthlings with some amazing sights as it traversed our solar system. Many of Celestron users have reported viewing this comet with their telescopes or binoculars. In this newsletter we are featuring some of these eyewitness accounts: Read John Buonomo's series of blog entries on CelestronLife.com » View Comet Lulin photos on CelestronImages.com » NEW ON CELESTRON.com: CONTESTS   We have added a new section to Celestron.com that features exciting contests and sweepstakes offered by Celestron and a few hand-picked partners. To get you started, here are a couple of upcoming challenges: INSIDE CELESTRON: Who is OrangeTube?   There is a rogue secret society of like-minded individuals inside the Celestron team. Their night-time meetings are shrouded in secrecy. No one is allowed in without a password and a secret handshake. They are known simply as the "OrangeTube". Their mission is to produce quality videos that reveal the long kept secrets of telescope setup to the general public. Check out OrangeTube's YouTube Channel » We really hope you've enjoyed reading this newsletter. Please submit your feedback below. Clear Skies! Celestron Marketing Team Event Calendar Griffith Observatory 100 Hours of Astronomy Event April 4 2pm to 10pm Los Angeles, CA The 100 Hours of Astronomy Cornerstone Project is a worldwide event consisting of a wide range of public outreach activities, live science center, research observatory webcasts and sidewalk astronomy events. Join Celestron in celebration of this event at world famous Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. read more » Irvine Spectrum 100 Hours of Astronomy Event April 4 1pm to 9pm Irvine, CA Activities will be occurring at two public venues within the Irvine Spectrum: One set of telescopes and activities will be based at the Giant Wheel Court. A second set of telescopes and activities will be based in front of the Edwards Cinemas Court. read more » The Franklin Institute Grand Opening of Galileo Exhibit April 4 11am to 3pm Philadelphia, PA As host of the Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy exhibition, The Franklin was the natural location for the kick-off of one of IYA2009's eleven global cornerstone projects - 100 Hours of Astronomy. read more » 400 Years of the Telescope... April 10 10 PM ET/PT PBS Channel “400 Years of the Telescope, A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought”.  A PBS documentary that will air in the United States nationwide on PBS April 10th at 10 PM ET/PT (check local listings). In addition to the PBS airing, the documentary will be shown at 750 planetariums around the world. read more » Texas Star Party April 19-26 Prude Ranch, TX The 31st Annual Texas Star Party will be hosted on the magnificent Prude Ranch, a 3500 acre mile-high ranch located six miles northwest of Fort Davis on Highway 118... 12 miles on the same road from McDonald Observatory.... read more » RECAP of Winter Star Party Last month our Community Relations Coordinator and CelestronLife.com contributor Kevin Kawai along with other team members attended the annual Winter Star Party held in the Florida Keys, and hosted by the Southern Cross Astronomical Society (SCAS), Inc., of Miami, Florida... view photos | read Kevin's blog »

	IYA2009 Updates Welcome to the second issue of Celestron's 2009 Newsletter. By now you have already heard that 2009 was declared the International Year Of Astronomy by the United Nations. As a proud global sponsor Celestron will bring you up-to-date info on this remarkable year-long celebration: Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium is now an Official Product of IYA2009 "Celestron's SkyScout is a must-have tool for astronomy beginners. Its high-quality features and educational value make it the perfect instrument to explore the sky during 2009, the International Year of Astronomy." said Pedro Russo, International Year of Astronomy Coordinator... read more » Celestron is pleased to announce that they are global sponsors of 100 Hours of Astronomy, an IYA2009 Cornerstone project Celestron is also sponsoring the opening ceremony of 100 Hours of Astronomy at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA on April 2nd. This weekend will also be the grand opening of the much-anticipated exhibition "Galileo, The Medici and The Age of Astronomy." This exhibition features many Galileo artifacts including one of the two remaining telescopes built and used by Galileo... read more » For more information on IYA2009 and to meet other IYA fans, please join our growing IYA2009 User Group on CelestronLife.com SPOTLIGHT: User Submitted Content   We are extremely excited about the tremendous response we've received from our customers after the launch of CelestronImages.com and CelestronLife.com communities. In this issue we would like to highlight some of the impressive content contributed by Celestron users: Astrophotography by John Buonomo on CelestronImages.com: click to view John 's profile » Terrestrial Photography by Luc Delisle on CelestronImages.com: click to view Luc's profile » Delta-4 heavy Rocket Launch by Brent on CelestronLife.com: click to view the Brent's video » INSIDE CELESTRON: Tech Support News   In this issue's INSIDE CELESTRON section we are featuring some usefully tips and information contributed by our Technical Support Department: Did you you that our revolutionary All Star Polar Alignment is now available on all CGE and Advanced GT models? Simply fire up your Hand Control Firmware Update Software and download the latest update. We have recently tripled the amount of articles in our online Knowledge Base (KB). With Celestron's new and improved KB all the knowledge and experience of our technical staff is just a mouse click away. Easily compare technical specifications of up to 5 products side by side with our revamped Product Comparison tool. Just click on Compare tab from almost any product page to begin comparing. We really hope you've enjoyed reading this newsletter. Please submit your feedback here: http://www.celestronlife.com/blogs/entry/2009-Newsletter-Issue-2 Clear Skies! Celestron Marketing Team Event Calendar Winter Star Party Feb. 21-28 Florida Keys, CA Established in 1984, the Annual WINTER STAR PARTY is held in the Florida Keys, and hosted by the Southern Cross Astronomical Society (SCAS), Inc., of Miami, Florida. During a new moon week each February, approximately 650 amateur astronomers from around the world travel to the warm subtropics of the Florida Keys to enjoy nightly observing in 360° of clear steady night skies, exchange information and advice on the hobby, meet SCAS members and distinguished guest speakers, shop for astronomical equipment from the finest vendors in the country, participate in photo contests & workshops, go sightseeing in the "Conch Republic", and record the awesome beauty sparkling in the southern night skies... read more » RECAP of Galileo's Legacy Conference In January, our Community Relations Coordinator and CelestronLife.com contributor Kevin Kawai attended Galileo's Legacy Conference at the picturesque Makaha Resort and Golf Club in Makaha, Oahu, Hawaii. This 5 day conference pays tribute to Galileo's first look through a telescope 400 years ago, as well as to the modern day users, builders and researchers who use small telescopes towards the advancement of astronomical sciences... view photos | read Kevin's blog » RECAP of 2009 International CES Celestron had a very successful exhibition at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). We were proud to show off the exciting new product line-up for 2009. There was steady traffic at our both, rivaled only by the traffic on our CelestronLife.com website, where we streamed live webcam shots from the floor of the convention and posted videos and photographs... view photos | view CES 2009 videos » RECAP of 2009 Shot Show Celestron, fresh from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV, once again had a presence at a major convention. The SHOT Show attracts dealers and distributors throughout the nation and at least 75 different countries from around the world, where the latest in ammunition, archery, camping gear, cutlery, firearms, hunting accessories, outdoor gear and sport optics are all being exhibited. This year, all exhibitors are gathered in one central location - the West Hall... view photos | read Shot 2009 blog »

On a clear and cold Wednesday evening, December 16, 2009, a group of well know telescope manufacturers (Celestron, Explore Scientific and Meade Instruments) came together, not as competitors, but as educators to participate in a one hour public seminar aimed at the beginning astronomy crowd looking to purchase their first telescope, spotting scope, binocular or other astronomically related product this holiday season for themselves or for gift giving.  The venue was the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater, inside the famed Griffith Park Observatory, which overlooks the city of Angels.  A star party would immediately follow the presentation outside on the observatory's front lawn with additional representatives on hand to demonstrate products highlighted during the seminar.  The presentation began promptly at 7:30 p.m. with Griffith Observatory's Astronomical Observer, Anthony Cook, taking on dual roles as host and presenter. 

Tony started off the evening by introducing basic telescope concepts and useful telescope terminology including different types of optical configurations, the importance of aperture (light gathering ability), mountings and magnification.  He also spoke about the usefulness of binoculars, and its ability to scan a wide swath of the night sky for unprecedented views of the Milky Way.  I was up next (by alphabetical order of the manufacturers) and spoke first on why Griffith Observatory played a major role in my life - as the place where I first looked through a telescope and saw Saturn's rings as a young boy, which inspired me to have a lifelong interest in astronomy and telescopes.  I then proceeded to discuss some of Celestron's most popular products which were specifically designed towards the beginning amateur astronomer - The SkyScout, FirstScope and the NexStar SE telescope lineup.  Time was limited to only 10 minutes per presenter, so I only had enough time to discuss some of the major highlights of each product.  Next up was Scott Roberts, President of Explore Scientific, and well known for his prominent role in promoting astronomical outreach.  Scott discussed the importance of public outreach awareness and introduced some his company's telescopes to the audience.  Chris Morrison, Vice-President, Support Services, Meade Instruments, followed suit and rounded out the talks by speaking of his company's recommended products designed for the beginning astronomer as well.  With just a few minutes to spare, a question and answer session took place, which was then immediately followed by the star party. 

               

After a week long period of rain, the sky was clear and all of our favorite objects to view - Jupiter, M42, Double Cluster, M45, M35, Castor, Albireo and more, were plainly visible above the beautiful Los Angeles city skyline.  Celestron's Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill and Marketing Coordinator, Yasmine Rios, accompanied me to the event and were on hand demonstrating and allowing visitors to "test drive" our products, so they could get a feel on how user friendly and fun our products are to use.  Chris and Scott also had their fellow representatives on hand doing the same.  The star party provided a wonderful avenue for prospective telescope buyers to meet with the representatives, try out a variety of different telescopes and ask questions and receive helpful advices.  And yes, the "oohs" and "aahs" could be heard throughout the lawn.  By 9:45 p.m. the park ranger came by and made an announcement signaling the end of the star party, and like all successful star party events, time always goes by quickly, especially when everyone is having a good time.

              

Celestron would like to thank Griffith Observatory and especially Anthony Cook, for inviting all the local, major telescope manufacturers to participate in this first ever Pre-holiday Telescope Buyer's Guide seminar workshop.  It was great teaming up (for a change) with Chris and Scott and their respective organizations.  Hopefully, everyone who attended the event will now have a better understanding of telescopes or binoculars and will make a good choice of bringing the night sky a little closer this gift giving holiday season and beyond.  Happy Holidays everyone!

 

 

 

My new CPC 9.25 arrived yesterday morning around 1100. I purchased it in person at Astronomics in Norman on Friday. They shipped in Monday and it was here the next day. They didn't have a CPC on display but I had done my research and knew what I wanted. I was still suprised at the mass of this thing as I was unpacking the scope. I had downloaded all the manuals and read up before the arrival of the scope. This made the assembly of the scope a breeze. I think the CPC is the easiest scope I have ever assembled. The only thing in the manual that didn't jive with the scope involved the mounting of the finderscoe dove plate. The instructions don't mention that the screws must be removed from the scope and even warn you not to install the screws without the assembly in place to avoid damaging the mirror. Obviously, this has been remedied and the the screws come installed in the scope from the factory.

As I said, the scope is a breeze to set up. You remove the tripod (which is very sturdy and well built, in my opinion) and install the accessory tray. This takes just a couple of minutes. Let me say that this scope is a whole new adventure for me. This is my first large scope short of an 8 inch dob. Most of my scopes have been of the ETX line or smallish reflectors. I have always enjoyed my scopes but the CPC is the highest quailty scope I have owned. Anyway, after the quick assembly of the tripod, you remove the scope from the box. The packing done by Celestron is top notch. I was worried seeing some dings on the box after Fed-Ex dropped of the scope but it was for naught. The scope was very well packed and it would have taken major external damage to get to the scope. Basically, you just remove the scope from the box and set it on the tripod. The centering pin is a great idea and it helps with installing such a large scope. Once the three attachmnet bolts are secure, you can finish up the assembly of the scope. All that is left is installing the handheld computer holder and the finderscope. After that, you can mount the visual back, diagonal and eyepiece. I will post some photos of the unpacking process later.

As usual, my first night with the scope was spent indoors. We had rain and clouds all evening. The forcast for tonight wasn't much better. I checked shortly after sundown the the sky was almost completely clear! I had the scope disassembled, moved to the garage and reassembled in about 5 minutes. I let it cool down for a bit (not nearly long enough for good viewing but this was mostly a test run). It was then moved to the driveway as it offers the most sky here at my house. Light pollution is terrible, though. I lined up my fiderscope using the moon. Once that was accomplished, I did the alignment procedure. Everything went perfect and I had a match. I did a goto back to the moon and it was dead center in the eyepiece. Tracking was perfect as far as I could tell. I also looked at Jupiter and it's moons using the included 40mm eyepiece. I then fired up the tour feature and hit M101, M34, M31, and M32. The wife and kid came out to spend some time looking at the full moon. I was surprised at everything I could see inspite of the moon being full.

I also check collimation and it looks perfect to me so no adjustment required. I also hit two double stars. I had forgetten how beautiful they can be.

By this time I was freezing my tail off so I packed up and lugged everything back in the house. It was around 38 degrees F and I wasn't even close to properly dressed for the cold. My next outing will have a proper cool down period and better clothing for the cold. Can't wait..I had a blast tonight!

The Calm before the Storm..

   As the Moon subsides,all the telescopes are coming back out an i have Hurricane Ida in route..8^(..

   But before my sky's go cloudy for week i took Terminater09' out in the back yard an went to work...

  Couple nights before the weather was iffy,so i had just brought out the Nexstar8SE for moon an planet shots between the clouds.I caught Nov.1.09  full moon in 15 seconds!! in to only time it left the clouds for 30 seconds!!  All Night!!

  Earlier in the mornings i had caught Mars...It ,at unbelievable magnification, moved All over the place.i got it on film but you can tell i'm out of my scopes useful magnification..  

Friday,Nov.6-7th 09 i had Clear sky's ...Good enough to bring out Terminater09' for some Astrophototagraphy!!

  It 8pm...

This below was a "First shot" after the set-up(carry-out,set-up,align,attach cams an cords etc etc),single frame(the rest had tree in it)220sec 1600iso f0 T1i shot...

   The M11 Wild Duck Star Cluster

 

    Next.. i went to the M103 Star Cluster,was very colorful to just the eye alone..

       

  This one below was super dense,There stars everywhere!!

The NGC789 Star group  

   

   This one i've hit with the G10 last year,..This Time with T1i,prime focus,8SE tube,CGEM..  

The NGC457 E.T. Star Cluster...

     

   It now 9pm est..Was amazed i  captured 4 star clusters in just an hour..8^)...

  This below, i Captured the 7th ,Saturday night ,while Galaxy hunting..The Double Cluster..  

 

  Now the Moons was starting to rize out of the East...  

    

   Above is the Moon,Jet passing an under it all is "Terminator09'"  L.E.D.S...  

This was neat view of the Moon,The shot is in Focus,just the clouds are moving...

   

   While the Cloud patch blew threw,there moving pretty fast due to Ida in the gulf, i went back in the house for bit...

         When i came back out ,i started checking objects again on starry nights pro..I heard a russle of bushes!!!

 I grabbed the flash light,stood-up an began searching the area where the noise came from..

It wasn't just a light brush of a bush,sounded pretty heavy..

I own a Cat,she's black an weighs about 11lbs now.Some times she get's out an cruises the backyard

I'm standing up,i run the flashlight down my back wall an Holy Moly!!!

Somethings Looking Dead at Me!!!

           

   In this photo above you can see A-Whole lot more then i could that night beings it's  past midnight.. when i previewed this shot in the back the camera i saw nothing but Red Eye's eyeing me..

  I turned around an took a shot of my pool area...

 

    OK...It's not my cat..

Time for close-up an hope i don't get Attacked!!!

 I climbed up on my stored Tahoe in the backyard under a cover an snapped away...

   

   One Opposum !!!..my first spotlight of'm made him Play Dead...lol..He's playing dead mid-fence-climb..heh

    

    In this close-up you can see his/her Blue an Red different colored ears...

Even stranger his Eye's where Blue an Red Too..but opposite of his ears..It was Aleast 4 feet long including the tail!!!  

   It finaily left one my trips in the house for drink..

I went back to Scoping,the clouds had cleared...for now..

  Below is a Super Processed Moon Shot..

only took 15 seconds to capture in HD, but took 2 an 1/2 Hours!!! of processing to complete...

If you light a lighter or match below your view of it..the heat vapor from the heat makes this shot come alive!!

    

   Now Mars is above the Palm tree...

Off with the T1i, on with the G10,25X7mm zoom lens an x2 barlow..

  

  I'm out of useful magnification in this shot along with slight dew an one my culmination screws could use 1/3 turn i can tell, so this is a project in works..

There special Mars filters out i've seen as well..

This is as close as you get with 8"

   It's Saturday night,

These are my next interest....Galaxy's...

I'm in Orlando,FL so there a real challenge!!...

 these below are just single frame shots ,2minx1600, to get me formularized with there size an locations at prime focus

   NGC253 Sculpture galaxy

  

    M31 The core of the Andromeda galaxy

   

   NGC6946 galaxy..(have to look hard,but it's in the lower mid part this frame below)  

 

    Last is the M74 Phantom Galaxy...it's a ghost alright!!  

 

  Like i said before,these galaxys above where just 2 min iso1600 single frame photos with a moon out..

More to come with darksky's an no clouds!!

  I'll be likely unable to scope for week or more now till Hurricane Ida passes..But i got my fill in for now..Enjoy!!

     Bozo

   http://www.celestronimages.com/member.php?action=showprofile&user_id=2306  

   http://www.youtube.com/user/YoudSayOmg          

Fall, which is the best season for watching stars, is getting on. The night sky is sowed with large and small countless stars as if a panorama reversed the shining sandy beach.

Beyond Midnight the Orionids rised in the east. The Orion Nebula spreaded its wing wide. I expected meteoroids looking up the sky. It had been quiet momentarily. Then a sharp light with white gases slashed the dark sky suddenly. Again quietness came. It was done over. I counted 12 per a half hour. The meteor shower features fast and created a shining trail of gases.

By the way, it is the Herschel objects I want to talk this time. Last week I read "The Herschel objects and How to Observe Them" written by Mr. James Mullaney, F.R.A.S that is translated into Japanese. The revolutionary book for Japanese astronomers has deeply impressed me with the honorable achievement by William Herschel and observing Herschel objects. I learned for the first time that he had observed mostly with two 20ft telescopes equipped 30cm and 47cm mirror than a giant 40th, made his catalog of deep sky objects with them.

At Once I've tried to search and watch, sketch them with Celestron NexStar 102 SLT. It wasn't easy to recognize Herschel objects by my telescope first. I see there wasn't an object in the sight where it ought to be by low power, but looked about there for a minute, and appeared it vaguely, then saw by higher power, next found it surely. This time I tried open clusters. A lot of them were small, pale or sparse. But I was greatly touched by them, because all of them ware astronomical open clusters that ware different from superficial gathers rightly. I've amazed that he with his younger sister devoted his life to hunting the sky for them and accomplished to make his list of 2508 objects in the 18th century when Astrometry had been all and Astrophysics was not. I've realized so when I searched and watched sketched 18 open clusters in them.

I show all of my observation. They were not very good because I was insufficient and often interrupted clouds. From now on, I'll try the supplementary Herschel objects of the book. I would like to express to Mr. James Mullaney my gratitude for a lot of suggesting how to observe them.

Class 6

H 31-6 (NGC663), Cas, Type; OC, M;7.1, Size; 16′ Note; 17 Aug,2009. Seeing; 4　Eyepiece; 9mm (×89)

×89

H 30-6 (NGC7789), Cas, Type; OC, M; 6.7, Size; 16′ Note; 17 Aug,2009. S2　Eyepiece; 9mm (×89) View; It seems like cloud when looking in it. A lot of very small stars are twinkling when looking at it out from the corner of my eye.

×89

Class 7

H 45-7 (NGC436), Cas, Type; OC, M; 8.8, Size; 6′ Note; 17 Aug,2009. Seeing; 4 Eyepiece; 9mm (×89) View; A few stars seem in a small cloud. The cloud cannot is distinguished thoroughly.

×89

H 42-7 (NGC457), Cas, Type; OC, M; 6.4, Size; 13′Note; 17 Aug,2009. Seeing; 4 Eyepiece; 9mm (×89) View; Large and small stars gather round.

×89

H 48-7 (NGC559), Cas, Type; OC, M; 9.5, Size; 7′ Note; 17 Aug,2009. Seeing; 4 Eyepiece; 9mm (×89) View; It's very open as if doubtful. But it is an open cluster surely.

×89

H 49-7 (NGC637), Cas, Type; OC, M; 8.2, Size; 4′Note; 17 Aug,2009. Seeing; 4 Eyepiece; 9mm (×89) View; Some stars appear like a rough cloud when looking at it out from the corner of my eye.

×89

H 46-7 (NGC654), Cas, Type; OC, M; 6.5, Size; 5′ Note; 17 Aug,2009. Seeing; 4 Eyepiece; 9mm (×89) View; Many twinkle stars appear when looking at it out from the corner of my eye.

×89

H 47-7 (NGC1502), Cam, Type; OC, M; 5.7, Size; 8′ Note; 20 Aug,2009. Seeing; 5 Eyepiece; 12mm (×67) View; It's very beautiful. Golden two stars are bright and small stars spread out in four directions evenly.

×67

H 56-7 (NGC7790), Cas, Type; OC, M; 8.5, Size; 17′ Note; 17 Aug,2009. Seeing; 2 Eyepiece; 9mm (×89) View; Small cloud appears around three stars.

×89

Class 8

H 59-8 (NGC129), Cas, Type; OC, M; 6.5, Size; 21′ Note; 20 Aug,2009. Seeing; 5 Eyepiece; 12mm (×67) View; Small stars dot sparsely a equilateral.

×67

H 78-8 (NGC225), Cas, Type; OC, M; 7, Size; 12′ 　 Note; 20 Aug,2009. Seeing; 5 Eyepiece; 12mm (×67) and 9mm (×89) View; By a 67-power, A group of Twinkle small stars appears near a stars which is five magnitude star next to γstar. By a 67-power, they are clear.

×67

×89

H 85-8 (NGC1545), Per, Type; OC, M; 6.2, Size; 18′ Note; 20 Aug,2009. Seeing; 2 Eyepiece; 12mm (×67) and 9mm (×89) View; There is the b1, which is a variable star belong ELL-type, in the field. This object is close to it. A concourse of a few small stars appears through slight cloud.

×67

×89

H 70-8 (NGC1582), Per, Type; OC, M; 7p, Size; 37′ Note; 20 Aug,2009. Seeing; 2 Eyepiece;12mm (×67) View; A round arch, which traced with six bright stars, is prominent. There are small stars along it but very few in the inside.

×67

H 67-8 (NGC7160), Cep, Type; OC, M; 6.1, Size; 7′ Note; 18 Aug,2009. Seeing; 2 Eyepiece; 9mm (×89) View; A slender cross shapes from four brighter stars. Small stars dot sparsely around the star, which is the top of the cross.

×89

H 77-8 (NGC7380), Cep, Type; OC, M; 7.2, Size; 12′ Note; 18 Aug,2009. Seeing; 4 Eyepiece;12mm (×67) and 9mm (×89) View; By a 67-power, the shape of T seem like cloud. By 89-power, Seven stars has pointed like a shape of a spoon. Small stars are studded sparsely.

×67

×89

H 69-8 (NGC7686), And, Type; OC, M; 5.6, Size; 15′ Note; 20 Aug,2009. Seeing; 4 Eyepiece; 12mm (×67) View; Four stars, which include the brightest red star, form trapezoid and small stars dot sparsely.

×67

Excuse me, I cannot write well in English.

Well... not the one you probably were expecting for sure, but my big bang on astronomy. Since young I was thrilled about stars, planets and so on. During my youth I always lived on the countryside where lights during the night were minimal. I remember I could see very well the milky way and a night sky full of stars. Now... I live in the middle of a city where I can see about 10% of what I could see by that time, but once in a while I go to my parents home and when the night comes, I stay outside for a while appreciating the show the skies are presenting.

 So, now was the time to begin a "thing" a always wanted to. It was though to "convince" my wife to buy a telescope... I even had to "put" some new ideas in my older daughter first in order to have the job half way done ha ha! But it was after all no big deal. Anyway, after reading some reviews and users comments, I've decided on the Celestron CPC 9.25 since I was curious not only for the observation itself, but also about getting some images of what I was able to see.

 Here in Portugal when products arrive, they are amazingly high, so I had to get the scope and the extra material from outside, and like many of you I believe I started to search on the internet stores in Europe that would offer the best price. Built an Excel spreadsheet with all the stores, it's prices, the shipping cost to Portugal, and after that the analyses were must easier to do and I could see that in U.K. there were the best offer, the prices were great since the Sterling pound were getting weaker than Euro by this time, so I had the opportunity to save some extra Euros with this. So, I picked Opticstar to deal with, decision that I later deeply regretted. From the beginning it was all great, they offer me this and that and I was really happy with the potential transaction, however when I put my order online the problems started. Mr. Karbolounis asked me after this to make 1£ transfer to their account in order to have my bank account data (since I was paying by credit card) and to secure themselves that I was a trustee person. This transfer cost me 17€ in fees (money that I never got back), and know they were expecting me to send a confirmation number in order to release the telescope! A confirmation number I asked ? but... I never received a e-mail or what so ever with a confirmation number... I reply! Mr. Karbolounis, keep saying that without it they could not send the goods, even after I transfer 1£ to their account. So I thought, that all of the talk Mr. Karboulonis were saying was "crap" (I'm sorry for the language) and he was just lying to me all the time, promising he could deliver the telescope and the extras by a deadline date I established but he could not honour from the beginning. So I removed the order, by credit card company deleted the transaction and I turned to the second store on the list.

 Like someone said... "One happy customer worth ten, one unhappy worth an hundred..."

 Mr. Simon and Mr. Neil Richardson from Telescope Planet has been outstanding with me and within 1 week after committed  the transaction, I was receiving 2 big boxes with my new "toy". Now I'm awaiting for the Celestron eyepiece kit and some filters in order to enjoy the full capability of the CPC 925.

 So, I hope skies keep clear like it has been for the past 2 weeks and let me play during late hours for a while... I'll try to keep this blog up to date with my feelings, achievements and disillusions...

 Clear skies to all!   

I imagine with seeing the member's profile photo. What situation does everybody watch and take a photo the night sky in? Are you in a prairie or a vast plain stretching as far as you can see? Or are you in a favorite observatory of your own composition or a balcony of your house? I've stretched my imagination and given my heart to amateur astronomers in the world with friendship.

I show you my watching situation. Fukuyama city I live is in Hiroshima Prefecture. My city has about a 426,000 population and the large scale iron foundry. I live on the west outskirts of the urban district. The east sky is covered with the light of the city at night. But I have a passable starry sky at midnight and enjoy astronomy.

When it will be clear night sky, I am going ot walk to my fahavorite poin with my telescope.

This is Japanese shrine in my path.

I'll walk in five minuites on this way.

Then I'll arrived at a children's field. Here is my point to object night sky.

This is a view near my house.

The rice paddy fields are spread over.

Amaryllidaceous flowers blossom in the shore of ditches tending to rice paddy fields.

I often commute to my office on National route2 by my bicycle. There is my office at Kasumi shopping arcade.

By the way, Look at my new sketches, please. The following is my sketch with Celestron Next Star 102 SLT.

M39 in Cygnus；×20 M15 in Pegasus;×88

NGC 7331 in Pegasus;×88 The Pleiades（M45)in Taurus ;×20

How beautiful the Pleiades is! Blule stars gather around. I was gazing at the open cluster . It was very difficult to dot the position of star one by one exactly. I mistaked the positions of some stas and erased the pencil marks with an eraser to put right. But some pale erased marks seem in the circle.

	Welcome to the 9th issue of Celestron's 2009 Newsletter! This month we are proud to introduce Article Spotlight, the new section on Celestron.com. This section will feature monthly articles by contributing industry professionals to inform, engage and enlighten you on their personal experiences in the astronomical community. Sponsored by CelestronLife.com, our Article Spotlight allows you to leave comments on the articles and experience our growing community of like-minded individuals on CelestronLife.com.. « learn more | meet contributors | read first article » CGE PRO Mount Video   Earlier this year, Celestron unveiled CGE PRO, our ground-breaking new German Equatorial mount. Now, we are happy to announce the release of a documentary-style video, detailing the features of this robust new platform. In addition to being fully computerized with a database of over 40,000 celestial objects, the New CGE Pro German Equatorial mount has been completely redesigned to offer numerous design advantages for the Astrophotographer... « visit CGE PRO page   |   watch video » CONTEST ENDS SEPT 30: WIN A VINTAGE C11 Celestron is proud to have its vintage C11 telescope signed by a previous owner - Leonard Nimoy exhibited at the Franklin Institute as a part of "STAR TREK: THE EXHIBITION" « learn more about THE EXHIBITION   |   enter to WIN A VINTAGE C11 » Community Relations Blog by Kevin Kawai OUTREACH: Boy Scout Troop 378 Throughout the summer, Boy Scout Troop 378, from Torrance, CA has been meeting weekly at a local community center to learn about astronomy, as part of a program that would assist them to earn their Astronomy Merit Badge. Troop Leader, Steven Yen, as well as volunteers from the South Bay Astronomical Society, conducted classes to teach the Scouts about the night sky, the different types of telescopes in use, the birth, life and death of stars, identifying the constellations and so much more. Steven had contacted me to help assist with a star party for the Scouts, but each time a date was set, the star party was always called off due to the marine layer, which is infamous around the South Bay this time of year. Finally, on Thursday, August 27, 2009, and after many delays, the marine layer withdrew and lifted far enough from land. The Boy Scouts Star Party was back on! « see photo album   |   read blog entry » We really hope you've enjoyed reading this newsletter. Please submit your feedback here: http://www.celestronlife.com/blogs/entry/2009-Newsletter-Issue-9 Clear Skies! Celestron Marketing Team Event Calendar Black Forest Star Party September 18-20 Pennsylvania, USA The Black Forest Star Party is an annual dark-sky amateur astronomy observing event hosted by the Central Pennsylvania Observers (CPO). Held every year since 1999, the BFSP generally spans a weekend in the late summer or early fall in Cherry Springs State Park in Potter County, Pennsylvania. read more » Astronomy at the Beach September 26-26 Michigan, USA Great Lakes Association of Astronomy Clubs (GLAAC) presents their 13th Annual Astronomy at the Beach. Friday & Saturday, September 25th & 26th at Maple Beach, inside Kensington Metropark, from 6 pm - midnight (rain or shine) read more » 2009 PATS September 26-27 California, USA Be part of the most exciting astronomy and telescope show on the West Coast. Browse dozens of manufacturers and dealers of astronomical equipment, software, and accessories, all under one roof. Company representatives and, in some cases, owners will be available to answer your questions... read more » post your own Star Party on CelestronLife.com » Event Recaps by Kevin Kawai Starfest Canada 2009 August 20-23rd Starfest, the 28th annual celebration of astronomy, took place on August 20-23, 2009 at the River Place Park family campground site. Starfest is recognized as one of the top seven star parties in North America by Sky & Telescope magazine and is visibly Canada's largest annual observing convention and star party. Nearly 600 astronomy enthusiasts from Canada and the USA joined in with the festivities... « photo GALLERY | read Blog entry » Connect with Celestron on Social Networks:

Starfest, the 28th annual celebration of astronomy, took place on August 20-23, 2009 at the River Place Park family campground site.  Starfest is recognized as one of the top seven star parties in North America by Sky & Telescope magazine and is visibly Canada's largest annual observing convention and star party.  Nearly 600 astronomy enthusiasts from Canada and the USA joined in with the festivities.

This past February, I was contacted by Starfest President and Team Leader, Malcolm Park, who came across and enjoyed reading my Starfest 2008 blog.  After speaking with our Canadian Senior Sales Representative, Gary Stephey and I, Malcolm asked if we were interested in giving a talk at this year's event.  We agreed and throughout the spring, Gary and I tossed around several presentation ideas and discussed how we would strategize our presentation.  As the months flew by, summer came upon us rather quickly and with the announcement of new products such as the new EdgeHD optical system, we thought how great it would be if we also included an Engineer who was actively involved in its development.  I spoke with Celestron's Vice President of Engineering, Corey Lee to see if he would be available, and he was.  Our presentation team was set.

Corey and I flew out to Canada on August 19, 2009 and met up with Gary in Toronto.  During the drive up to the site, we heard stories how clear the weather had been the previous few nights, and as we made our way into River Place Park (home of Starfest), we were greeted by green, lush hills dotted with RVs and campers - a familiar sight seen each year.  The weather forecast wasn't too optimistic with 30% to 40% showers predicted throughout the weekend with a possibility of some clearing on Saturday night.  Looking up, things didn't look too promising.  We staked out our usual location near the Red Light Cafe and set up our tent.  With dark, ominous clouds moving into the area, we decided not to chance it in case it started to rain, so we left our products in the truck, as did most other vendors on site.  It was a good thing because someone ran out and yelled that a Tornado Warning has been issued within our vicinity!  It was kind of shocking to hear because we didn't think tornadoes formed this high up in Canada - we were wrong!  Before we knew it, black and light clouds began circulating, greenish clouds began to appear, rain began to fall, lightning lit up the sky and thunder boomed throughout the campground.  Within 15 minutes, looking out towards the west, we spotted the first tornado funnel cloud, perhaps an F1, that developed and touched down a mile or so away.  It wasn't your typical well defined tornado, and it was slightly broken up as it hung from the sky and eventually made landfall.  We lost sight of it as trees nearby hid it from view, but towards the north, more clouds were beginning to circulate.  People were just in awe as we saw twin lightly colored vortices making landfall about 2 miles away.  Luckily, they were moving towards the east and away from Starfest but we feared for the people in neighboring towns that were directly in the path of the twisters. The severe storms, ripped through the Durham-Markdale and Craigleith area (Grey County) leaving a wake of destruction, including down trees and damaged homes.  Starfest fared much better; however, a few tents were damaged or destroyed by high winds.  For us, the Celestron tent remained intact, but our fellow neighbor's tent didn't fare too well. 

The next day, we were greeted by the Sun and partly cloudy conditions.  Vendors began setting up their equipment for display, as we had a window of opportunity before the next storm was scheduled to blow through.  We displayed several telescopes including a new CGEM 800 HD, which brought out the curious, as well as our popular star party staples - the CPC 800 and NexStar 6 SE.  The CGE Pro 1100 HD would not make its debut until the following morning.  We outfitted our NexStar 6 SE with a solar filter and used the CPC 800 for terrestrial viewing, but sadly, that was about all the observing we did at Starfest this year.  By late afternoon, the clouds began rolling in again and any attempts to observe the sky remained fruitless.

Saturday morning (presentation day) was as gray as could be.  No Sun and no blue sky to be seen.  We were still quite upbeat and excited because not only would we be presenting our "What's new with Celestron" talk after lunch, but also because our CGE Pro mount finally arrived for us to display for our guests.  Corey, Gary and I spent most of the day fielding questions about the mount and new optical system.  New products always seem to get the most attention.  After the lunch hour, we made our way to the smaller tent and prepared for our presentation.  We were up against some stiff competition as another talk was scheduled for the main tent, and the swap meet took place concurrently.  Nonetheless, we had a good sized audience present as Gary led off our "What's new with Celestron" presentation.  Gary discussed some of the major highlights in Celestron's 49 year history including our founder; Tom Johnson's first built and sold SCT to the latest EdgeHD Optical System and every major milestone in-between.  I was up next and discussed my history with the company to the various roles and positions I held throughout my nearly 10 years with the company.  I also discussed the company's role as global sponsors of IYA 2009, various events and star parties we've participated in so far in 2009, as well as our new social networking sites - CelestronLife.com and CelestronImages.com.  I then passed the baton over to Corey, who presented the new EdgeHD Optics and discussed its design and features.  He explained how the new optical system produces a focal plane more than three-times flatter than a standard Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and corrects for off-axis coma.  Corey then showed images of celestial objects focused on axis, which depicted sharp, uniform stars across the entire FOV.  New mechanical features of the EdgeHD were also explained in detail.  We had fun conducting the presentation and felt confident we were able to bring something of value to the audience members. 

               

With absolutely no hope at all for any kind of observing due to the persistent cloud cover, many vendors began to break down their tents and packed up their belongings.  The big banquet took place inside the main tent as people lined up across the vendor's field for the delicious dinner and dessert.  Soon after, the announcements and door prize festivities began and similar to last year, baseball caps were tossed into the audience that really got the crowd going.  The Canadians absolutely knows how to have a good time.  Celestron donated several "Eyes on the Skies" DVDs, a FirstScope and the grand prize, a NexStar 8 SE.  Our Canadian Senior Sales Representative, Gary Stephey, was called up to the stage to do the honors of selecting the winning tickets.  One by one, the lucky winners came forth to collect their prizes.  When the time came to draw the grand prize, all were eerily silent throughout the tent.  Suddenly, a surprised and shocked Pat McLaren of Elora, Ontario, stepped forward to claim her telescope to the cheers of the crowd.  Pat mentioned that she and her husband have been coming to Starfest since 2001 and never expected to win anything other than just a cap.  Surprise Pat!  We're sure you'll be enjoying and sharing the views with everyone around you, including your husband, who just so happens to always been a hardcore DOB kind of guy.  Maybe he'll see what CATS can do too?

               

Starfest 2009 is going down in the history book as the year tornadoes paid an unexpected visit.  However, no amounts of rain, lightning or even a few tornadoes will ever blow away the enthusiasm of the people who regularly attends this great event each year.  It just so happens luck hasn't been on our side lately, but even though, we must all remain positive and hope next year brings clear skies for all.  Our luck is surely bound to change.  Corey and I departed Toronto safely the next day, and upon our return back to the office, we had many interesting nature stories to share with our fellow co-workers. Californians are used to earthquakes but tornadoes are a different story.  We'll return back to Starfest next year, and we'll make sure to let Malcolm know to save us our usual spot by the Red Light Cafe.  Until the next event, clear skies to you all.

 

 

Ｉam taking a coffee break in spare moments from my work. :) I am in practice at blog because I fail to link photos up my blog.

This sketch is M71 in Sagitta what we call "arrow" with CPC1100 and 32mm eyepiece, 87-power. The features; Distribution of stars is a little irregular. One side of ball is dispersed and blighter stars can be seen. Another side is concentrated and not discretely. It was a joyful sight.

We can see the different shapes of globular clusters in the night sky if we look at an object carefully.

By the way, does my photo show?

I finally got the pictures done - I took a thousand and have placed about 600-700 online in two albums.

All kinds of interesting stuff - China itself, fellow eclipse chasers, quest for the tidal wave, Purple Mountain Observatory, ancient astro instruments, modern Synta plant (that's where a lot of Celestrons are made), etc.

Check it out!

 
Summer in East Central China and the prospects for the longest total solar eclipse for more than 100 years. An irresistIble trip for the astronomy, the food, people, scenery and Shaoxing wine.

Part I covers Shanghai Days, Jiaxing, Mission to Moganshan, Eclipse Nightfall Jiaxing, OOPS!, Hangzhou West Lake Story, Huangshan Shi orr is it Tunxi? (what's in a name?), Huangshan.

Part II covers Nanjing, Purple Mountain Observatory, On the Road to Suzhou, Synta Factory Suzhou, Zai jian China!
 
http://picasaweb.google.com/ProfessorPhoto/China2009InTheShadowOfTheMoonPartIShanghaiThroughHuangshan#

http://picasaweb.google.com/ProfessorPhoto/China2009InTheShadowOfTheMoonPartIINanjingThroughZaiJian#

Here we are again in the middle of summer and for us Californians, July means warm, sunny blue skies, sandy beaches, summer Milky Way and Oceanside Photo and Telescope's Southern California Astronomy Expo (SCAE)!  How quickly an entire year has rolled around since the last SCAE 2008!  This past Saturday, July 18, 2009, OPT Boss, Craig Weatherwax, hosted the 5th Annual SCAE event and invited down nearly 40 vendors of astronomical related gear to showcase their latest wares to the public.  Just a week earlier, OPT held a very successful parking lot swap meet, followed by a film presentation and vendor star party at nearby Palomar College.  Like always, the events were free and open to anyone interested in astronomy and telescopes.  Part 2 of SCAE included a BBQ, mini presentation seminars by vendor reps, and the ever so popular "Raffle Prize Extravaganza" which this year, included an online giveaway for those who couldn't be at OPT in person.  The best part - raffle tickets were free! 

Celestron sent out a variety of representatives from different departments within the company.  Vice President of Engineering, Corey Lee, came down to SCAE this year and presented a talk on the new EdgeHD optical system to a curious audience.  With the official announcement made just 3 days earlier, the EdgeHD was no doubt, one of the most talked about new products at the event, and we were proud to have to have someone who worked extensively on the EdgeHD project conduct the presentation.  The Marketing Department was represented by Marketing Coordinator, Yasmine Rios, who's already become an event veteran, and I, Community Relations Coordinator, Kevin Kawai.  Representing the Repair Department included Repair and Returns Warehouse Supervisor, Daniel Fuentes and Lead Repair Technician, Hector Antuna.  The "dynamic duo" can adjust, clean and repair nearly every Celestron telescope and mount!  And finally, newly hired Special Sales Manager, Ben Hauck, joined in with the festivities and made his first public event debut with Celestron.  Welcome aboard Ben! 

                

The Celestron booth was located right in the middle of the upper level parking lot with two large tables to display our LCD Digital Microscopes, Axiom and Ultima eyepieces, Eyepiece kits, FirstScope and a SkyScout.  In addition, there was ample table room for giveaways such as catalogs, sell sheets, IYA posters, beanies, caps, pens and Frisbees.  With the Sun shining brightly throughout the day, we displayed our popular CPC 1100 and NexStar 8 SE telescopes for solar viewing even though there really hasn't been much activity on the Sun in recent memory.  Still, the Sun is always a popular target to view through telescopes, and our guests agreed.  We also set up a SkyMaster 25x100 binocular and a Regal 100F-ED spotting scope for terrestrial viewing.  The CGE Pro 1100 HD and CGEM 800 HD were set up right in front of the booth and always had a steady stream of people that gathered around for a firsthand look at the new optical tube/mount setups.    Some guests who came for a closer inspection included advanced imagers and visual astronomers. Those who missed out on Corey's presentation were still able to get an up close look at the new EdgeHD's mechanical features and learn how the optical system alleviates off-axis coma while producing a flat field.  There was even a beginner who wanted to get into the hobby but wanted to start off with only the top-of-the-line equipment!  Sure! Why not start with the latest and greatest?

                

 

By 6 PM, the vendor event officially came to an end, but not before the giant SCAE Giveaway commenced in its place with Craig serving as Master of Ceremonies.  Thousand upon thousands of dollars worth of raffle prizes were up for grabs in the children, adult and online categories.  This was the biggest raffle prize drawing ever and Celestron contributed with the prize pool too by donating an "Eyes on the Skies" DVD/Book and a FirstScope for the children's drawing and a CPC 800 for the adult gold prize.  The children's raffle drawing took place first, and a very happy young girl won the FirstScope.  Her big smile said it all as she claimed her prize!  In keeping with tradition, for the past 2 years, our gold prize winners would always spend time talking to me earlier in the day before having their winning ticket drawn during the raffle.  Would the same good fortune take place again this year?   I did speak with quite a number of guests.  When it came time for Celestron's gold prize to be drawn, Craig summoned Yasmine and I to the stage area and announced the winning number.  Would there be a "three-peat" once again?  Well, yes and no.  The man with the winning ticket turned out to be Bob Buckner, an OPT SCAE regular who indeed spent some time at the Celestron booth talking to Yasmine earlier in the day.  I have the photo to prove it - (see photo on bottom left). Although while Bob didn't actually speak with me, he did speak to Yasmine, so I guess that's good enough to keep the streak alive.  Congratulations to Bob and hope you enjoy your new CPC 800. 

 

                

Immediately at the conclusion of SCAE, we loaded up our belongings and joined the other vendors and OPT staff for a reception in the downstairs Art Gallery for cheese, wine, grapes and crackers.  It was a relaxing way to recap the day's events with old friends and even with a few competitors, while making new acquaintances as well.  Dinner immediately followed just walking distance away at Vigilucci's Italian Restaurant.  Craig had rented out the entire restaurant, and the food was excellent like always after working a long, hard day.  It was really amazing to see most of the major astronomical equipment manufacturers get together and dine together under one roof.  Leave it to Craig to make it all happen.  As always, Celestron would like to give a very big "thank you" shoutout to Craig and Leigh Weatherwax, Penny Distasio, Rayna Roberts, Eric Blackhurst and the entire staff at OPT for all your hard efforts in putting together another great SCAE event.  There's no doubt a lot of planning, cooperation and coordination were involved, but for all your hard efforts, it brings together the best annual summertime astronomy event period.  We'll see if there will be a "four-peat" during next year's raffle prize drawing.  Until next time, enjoy the hobby and keep looking up!  Click on the first picture in this blog recap to be automatically sent to the OPT SCAE 2009 photo album on Flickr Photos.

 

 

Well, it's been a while since I contributed here but this will be a short post.  I just had to share the fact that our little astronomy club (Levin StarGazers) just won a global award for our participation in the 100 Hours of Astronomy event held in April!!!  We won the Award Three section for Community Outreach, which is simply awesome, particularly when you consider there were something like 2370 registered events worldwide.  The award will be recognised at the IAU General Assembly in Brazil in August.

A big thanks to Celestron too for the Sky Scout that we will be receiving as a prize.  This will be extremely useful in our public outreach and educating both members of our club as well as members of the public.

On Saturday, June 6, 2009, Orion Telescopes held its first ever "Celestron Day" in the parking lot of its retail store. Being an Orion customer myself for many years, I was excited upon hearing the news of a Celestron Day and jumped at the opportunity to travel to Northern California (Cupertino) to be a part of a collaborated event between Celestron and a fellow respected name in the telescope industry - Orion Telescopes.  Celestron firmware Engineer, Derik DeVecchio, and I headed out the day before and yours truly had the privilege of driving the cargo van up Interstate 5 for the 7 hour drive from Los Angeles to Cupertino.  With several stops along the way for food and gas, we also encountered several large downpours, which was rather strange since California has been bone dry all year long.  However, the storms were rather fast moving, and we quickly drove into clearer skies as we headed on our northward journey.  Vice President of Sales, Victor Aniceto and Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill, took a late afternoon flight and would later rendezvous with us at the hotel.  That evening, the President of Orion Telescopes, Peter Moreo; Merchandising Manager, Anne Friscia; Purchasing Supervisor, Lisa Cudal; and Retail Store Manager, Ken Sablinsky joined us for a delicious pre-event dinner.  It was a relaxing way for all of us to talk about the event and even catch up on other things in life such as sport scores, our families, and even earthquakes!

                

Saturday morning greeted us with clear skies, but the excitement was short lived as clouds began to buildup as the morning progressed.  Luckily for us, it wasn't completely overcast.  Derik and I arrived early, and we set up our Celestron tent in the parking lot just to the right of the Orion store.  Soon after, Michelle and Victor joined us and busily prepared the table with all the goodies and giveaways, as we set up the CGE Pro 1400 and CGEM 1100 that we had brought along.  Ken and his staff also provided us with additional Celestron scopes and binoculars to put on display, as well as providing solar filters for daytime observing.  By 10:30 AM, the show began and slowly, guests started to arrive to check out our latest wares and take advantage of the big sale, and the additional special discount Orion offered on all Celestron products throughout the day.  Having an Engineer along really complemented and solidified our staff, as we were well represented from a Sales, Marketing and Engineering standpoint.  I have to say, it's really great to interact with customers and demo our gear at an event like this.  Any suggestions and feedbacks are duly noted because every idea is of great value and are taken into consideration.  With this in mind, Celestron can continue to come out with new or improve upon existing products that the consumer desires.  The Sun played "peek-a-boo" throughout the afternoon, but at times, came out long enough from behind the clouds to allow guests to check out the solar disc.  There's still no sunspot activity, but it's still cool to check out the Sun nonetheless. 

                      

Each hour, Michelle, conducted raffle prize drawings and gave away some really cool items, including several "International Year of Astronomy" official products such as the FirstScope, several "Eyes on the Skies" DVDs and books.  Raffle prize drawings are always fun whether you win something or not.  That FirstScope sure looked good.  Even I wished I could have won that scope, although I wasn't eligible, because it sure would like nice on my desk as a conversation piece when I'm not using it to scan the skies at night.  With lots prizes to raffle off, many people won something nice to take back home.  By late afternoon, it was time to raffle off the Grand Prize, which consisted of a NexStar 60 SLT.  People crowded around Michelle as she drew the winning ticket.  A gentleman quickly shouted out that he had the winning number and came forward to claim his new telescope and pose for pictures.  What an exciting way to end the day on a high note at the first "Celestron Day" at Orion Telescopes.

                        

We would like to thank the staff at Orion Telescopes for sponsoring this successful event.  We'll definitely be back again for the next one.  Judging from the turnout and the positive responses, there will be more events like this in the future.  If anyone finds themselves in Cupertino, CA, check out Orion Telescope's Retail Store, which is located in a convenient, modern mini-mall and say "hello" to Ken and his friendly knowledgeable staff.  You'll find plenty of Orion and Celestron products to browse through. Next up, our road trip adventures continues on to the desert southwest, as we head out to the All Celestron Star Party titled "C-Row Star-B-Que" in Palominas, AZ.  Hope to see you all there.  Comments and feedback about this blog and others are greatly appreciated!

The G10 Punches me in the Eye!!..

    Well..i still have my new modified Canon 5d T1i in route,along with a guide scope/camera combo package .Finally the Sky's have cleared-up over the weekend.The moon is now up so no deep-space searching allowed(G10 had draw backs anyway)..heh..So the Sun,Moon an Planets it is!!!..This my first Sun Spot, its numbers #1019, an still there today!! as of June 2nd,09!!

 

        

 

     Added celestron's yellow filter along with there Sun filter as the shot above was from...

 

        

 

       This Jet had to been more then 40 miles away at least,By eye was just a Orange Line on the horizon...

 

     

 

     Distance planes are the Best to focus on if at Dusk you plan on some Satellite tracking/capturing...Now the Moons up, Past 1/4 phase almost at 1/2...Creator Hunting Time...First up, a re-due of the Apollo 11's Landing zone!!!

   

    Now Arzachel,Alphonsus,Ptolemaeus    

 

   

 

      

Aristillus,Archimedes,Montes  Apenninus

 

 

   

 

      Since Saturn Right next to the moon, Figured oh why not...i haven't figured this out yet, but i get brighter shots while moons out then it's not...

 

       

 

     That was close as i can come with-out hitting the lens rings limit shooting Afocally...This next one is more in range,small,but real fine lined,I get Titian as bonus!!Its 40 Frames stacked a processed with registax4...8^)

 

     

 

       Last in this Blog is the Best...I Got ISS on Film From My Front Yard!!!....8^).....Below's my progress over the last 4 months!!.....Worst to Best to next day Photo Backing up settings...

 

     
 

 

   After this last one above, the next night's pass was only mag 1.0 vs the clearest shot above at -0.6...Camera settings an the Best ISS Edited shot at ( http://www.celestronimages.com/details.php?image_id=3628&mode=search)...;^)...

 

   

 

    All these where manually tracked using Red-Dot star finder with digital camera on 25mm eyepiece on a Nexstar8SE.When i fine tune my Sat-Tracker program,Look-out for Zero Blurred Shots up-coming with more Zooming!!

    Hubble!!! currently its a 5am joker, that means early thirty an dew everywhere but tis possible...time'll tell....Enjoy!! an Clear Sky's!!!               

 

          Bozo


   

The 41st annual Riverside Telescope Makers Conference and Astronomy Expo took place on May 22 through May 25, 2009 (Memorial Day weekend) at Camp Oakes near Big Bear City.  Located above the 7000 foot level, this well known Southern California astronomy event is held yearly at a YMCA campground nestled in the lush San Bernardino Mountains.  Unlike last year, which an unexpected late season snow storm quickly brought RTMC 2008 to a standstill, we were blessed with clear skies, warmer days, cold nights and no Moon - just the right combinations for making a great star party.  For 2009, Celestron did something different - we brought along our entire Engineering staff, in addition with representatives from Marketing and Product Management teams.   We not only wanted to provide answers to technical questions that arose, but we also wanted to show our commitment towards listening to our customers.  Yes, we do want to hear our customer's feedback and suggestions for future product improvements.  After all, we're continually striving on taking our products to the next level as technology keeps evolving in the fast paced information age we currently live in.

Making its unofficial debut at RTMC 2009, Celestron unveiled a new optical system that corrects for off-axis coma and also delivers a flat field - qualities which are sought after by advanced astroimagers.  Additional details will be announced in a future, upcoming web newsletter.  To be on the mailing list, please refer to the Celestron homepage at www.celestron.com and sign up.  Judging by the positive responses we received from guests who visited the Celestron booth, the future is looking very bright indeed.  Also highlighting our booth this year included our two new Computerized German Equatorial Mounts - the new flagship CGE Pro and mid range CGEM series.  Both mounts feature outstanding payload capacity, All-Star Polar alignment routines, Permanent Programmable Periodic Error Correction and so much more!  What a perfect matchup that will go hand in hand.

During the nightly star parties, the Celestron tent was as busy as ever.  With an abundant number of Celestron telescope operators on hand, nearly all the mounts, including those with the new optical tube systems, were lined up and scanning the night sky.  Like each year at RTMC, the spring night sky turned into the summer night sky, as new constellations rose from the east as the hours wore on.  Our targets included M13, M44, M51, M57, M65, M66, M81, M82, M92, M97, M100, M104 and more.  The Veil nebula and NGC 4565 also did not disappoint.   The skies were definitely better for viewing this year due to better transparency and seeing conditions.  Several of our Engineers and Product Manager also conducted an imaging demonstration for several guests using a DSLR camera.   The Whirlpool galaxy (M51) came out very impressively to everyone's delight.

               

On Saturday afternoon, Celestron founder, Tom Johnson, made his yearly trek to RTMC.  This year was extra special for Tom because he was a featured speaker.   It was a standing room only crowd of amateur and professional astronomers present, as Tom delivered his PowerPoint Presentation - "The Founding of Celestron."  Accompanying Tom was his son, Dr. Greg Johnson, who helped run the laptop. Tom covered his humble beginnings of putting together an 8" telescope from a kit, to how his increased curiosity of telescopes led him to devise a way to mass produce the Schmidt corrector plate while making his telescopes affordable.  At the conclusion of his presentation, some of the audience members came up to Tom and personally greeted and thanked him.  It was really heartwarming to see how Tom's company has influenced so many people in the astronomical community, myself included.  Today, his quest continues on, as one of Celestron's goals is to keep reaching out to a new generation of astronomical enthusiast from all across the globe! 

               

That evening after dinner, the annual Merit Awards were given out, along with the raffle prizes that were donated from various organizations and vendors.  I estimated well over 1000 people were gathered in front, inside and to the rear of the dining hall.  The crowds were already pumped up, as I could hear the people in front and back of the hall making a lot of noise.  Each location had their own cheering section, so as the raffle prizes got larger, so did their enthusiasm.  Because Celestron was a gold sponsor this year, we drew last, as our NexStar 8 SE was up for grabs as the Grand Prize.   After a brief motivational speech to see who was the loudest group (definitely in front), I called out the winning number.  At first, the audience was silent, as I thought to myself "ok, we'll just draw again if nobody steps forward." Suddenly, someone called out "we have a winner out front," to the groans of disappointment from everyone inside.   Sure enough, winner, Debbie Searle, from Encinitas, CA, came up to the stage and claimed her prize.  She informed me that she's very active in Public Outreach, so the NexStar 8 SE will fit her needs quite nicely.  We couldn't have been much happier to hear that.  Way to go Debbie, and best wishes using your new scope to reach further out into the community.

For Celestron, this year's RTMC was quite a success.  With booth traffic high, listening to positive feedback from customers and offering guests a "sneak peek" of what lays ahead, exciting times are definitely in store for Celestron.  On an added note, RTMC Vendor Chairman, Allan Guthmiller, informed us that next year's RTMC will be taking place earlier next May, during New Moon instead of the traditional Memorial Day weekend.  We're certain because of the date change to allow observing under darker sky conditions, will entice more people to come out to RTMC 2010.  Just wait until you see what's in store for Celestron next year!   I'll just leave it at that. Clear skies to all.

 

 

Well I bought a book on stargazin'. When I lived out away from the city years ago, I knew most of the Constellations. But over the years I got away from it. Well, this book I got lets you know what they look like, the names of the stars, and the other items located in the Constellations, such as Nebulas, Galaxies, etc.. Also let's you know the item's magnitudes, so I know what I can see and what I can't..

 So startng all over again, but I'm having a good time!

 

Pre-Shuttle Launch Weekend Space-Foolery...  

Friday,the 8th,i set to hunt Apollo moon landing sites..First up Saturn till the Moon clears the trees...

 

          

 

Full Moon Night...This full Moons name is Flower...

 

       

 

    With a Full Moon out, i figure Great time to hunt Apollo mission moon landing sites (LZ's)....First up ,Apollo 11..Look for the crop circle looking Creators ,4 in a semi-circle ,Big to smallest...to the upper left the brightest creator in this shot

 

       

 

    Second i hunted was Apollo 12's LZ...Good thing about Apollo 12 an 14 LZ's, there real close to each other..I got the LZ's centered frame as much as i could in all these shots..so the LZ's are mid-frame, one can use the creators around to help locate..Here's Apollo 12's LZ..  

 

     

 

    An lastly,Even more curious then the crop circle looking creators in the Apollo 11 shot..this Apollo 13 shot..There's three separate groups of creator hits, they all look the same, they go biggest to smallest in size too...you can easily  see the biggest,the other's are to the right, the smallest is off frame..

 

       

 

    A little after midnight...i heard an Crash, no tire squeal sound,then an Explosion!!.. i said to self, "Someone made a bad move somewhere",Looked at my handcontoler, an it re-set to pre-aliment mode,Yeap i lost power,The batteries in my batt. tray been dead for month..A/c's only way to stay contestant with a SE scope..1am , i paked it in an Processed..       Saturday, May 9th,09'..Tonight's mission that i cared to accept was an ISS pass...I set-up early, at 5:30pm est...My wake-up calls a Mocking Bird that's Guarding it's turf pre-dusk..no Early morning Roosters Allowed!!!...  

 

      

  

  I do a last check-up of weather,web-site favorites of observing idea's for the weekend,an last the Heavens-above.com print out of ISS info for later...an i'm Set-up.Algined on the Sun, an Catching a Tan..(if you look carefully, can see the girlfriend,her stance says it all...hehe)...  

 

    

 

     During daylight scoping,i Keep the CanonG10,un-mounted an with a zoom lens attached for terrestrial shots..

 

     

 

      About an hour later,time to get more serious,out comes the lap-top an the cord for the handcontroler for the sat-tracker program i have...  

 

    

 

    I prefer to use adjustable zoom lens,,the first i bought from Celestron was great, till a lot of use got trash on the lens,It's the twisting motion that's not quite smooth enough on the lens shell an make's debris flakes,only way to clear them is to take them apart, an what a Pain in the dareair that Is!!!...  

 

      

 

     After that feasko...all back together,an cleaned out,  I hope!!!..companies use an non-locking sealent in the threads,a nice greasey mess to deal with,look on the tissue you can see some of it...  

 

      

 

     Test Time..Need something bright...like ...mm...The Sun????  

 

      

 

     I traded one big glob dot, for 4 minor lint strings...heh...   Now ,the Sun's headed down, i Go to Sat-tracker for control of the Scope...

 

         

 

   Satellite viewing times in between 8pm till 10pm for the most visible...its good to align your star finder,an Camera if so equipped way before hand...I use stars for alignment an distant planes for focus...thought this was neat,sure showed up on the camera back good...A Procylon Spider...(forgot to add delay timmer)  

 

        

 

     Hers the Sat-Tracker program..I'm ready to track HST(hubble space telescope),an ISS tool bag that was dropped ,look in the middle list !!!...

 

       

 

   9:30 pm..Here She comes, International Space Station....

 

         

 

   Hour before hand i had the girlfriend go to radio-shack an get me a logiteck joy-stick for my lap-top,my last attempts at centering an fine tuning satellites has been with a laser mouse, That's Impossible!!,,i got this joystick option hooked-up an running an its perfect..it's like a x-box joystick, i turn it sideways,look in the star-finder while tracking, an just thumb the joystick till i'm on target...i got 3 slowed passes on AVI then overcorrected an that's was that, went back to Manual tracking, an photo capturing try's...i set the CanonG10 that's Afocal mounted on the 25x7 lens to 1/60",ISO100,F4.5 an snapped 3 shots at a time till the ISS was out of view...I caught it once...;^)...far from a clear shot,but all in time,with an 8" scope, i was impressed,only on 25mm lens, no barlow....  

 

      

 

    After the ISS..on to Saturn to try an get more color then Friday's Try with full moon out..Jack-Pot!!!  

 

      

 

   Regulus...

 

     

 

          After  Saturn,the moon was still under the trees.i went for a test shot of the Apollo 14's LZ spot again anyway...  

 

        

 

      Enough that ...Midnight Swimming an Spa break!!!!.... 

 

    

 

    After the Break..Back to Moon searching....    

 

    

 

    At 2am..i packed it all in..Processing time!!! made it through two processings an i Passed out!!...Now Sunday eve,I'm uploading,blogging,Nother night possiably of scoping intells..I'll have to let the gass dry out little more from the sprinklers.. Hope you had a chance to get out an get some sky time in...Enojy,,,an Clear Sky's!!          

 

                      Bozo    

Ok again quick posting

These 2 images are from last night, M64 the Black Eye Galaxy and Part of NGC7000 the North American Nebula, showing the Gulf Of Mexico Region,

funny to see the scale of these two objects since both of these images were taken with the same camera and scope combination, and there is only a slight edge cropping to show like scale

basically the same Feild of View.. when looking at the NGC7000 image this is only a small part of that nebula complex and M64 is a small spec in comparison

 

as always, clicking these will load full size images and you can visit the photo section to see these

Some info about the image

Messier 64 the Black eye Galaxy
Captured  04-23-2009 9:10est- 12:20 est
30x360sec Light
30x.33sec flat
100x360 sec dark
Seeing 8/10 gusty winds
Light Pollution - BAD :(
Location NBillerica MA

Scope - Celestron C8 Carbon Fibre Fastar Tube 1280mm f6.3 Celeston f6.3 Focal Reducer
Mount Celeston CGE
Camera Canon 350d Moddifided with Baader IRUV
Astronomik CLS Clip In Light Pollution Filter
Guide camera M3@D3 DSI pro II
Guide Scope William Optics 80MM fd 10th annervasary model
Capture Software - Nebulosity
Setting ISO 1600
Guiding Software PHD 1sec refreshes
Stacking and Calibrations Deep Sky Stacker
Processing PhotoshopCD3 and Noel Carboni tool Gradient Xterminator Noise Ninja Focus magic

---

Some info about the image

NGC 7000 the Gulf Of Mexico Region
Captured 04-24-2009  1:30am-4:44am est
37x360sec Light
30x.33sec flat
100x360 sec dark
Seeing 9/10 gusty winds
Light Pollution - BAD :(
Location NBillerica MA

Scope - Celestron C8 Carbon Fibre Fastar Tube 1280mm f6.3 Celeston f6.3 Focal Reducer
Mount Celeston CGE
Camera Canon 350d Moddifided with Baader IRUV
Astronomik CLS Clip In Light Pollution Filter
Guide camera M3@D3 DSI pro II
Guide Scope William Optics 80MM fd 10th annervasary model
Capture Software - Nebulosity
Setting ISO 1600
Guiding Software PHD 1sec refreshes
Stacking and Calibrations Deep Sky Stacker
Processing PhotoshopCD3 and Noel Carboni tool Gradient Xterminator Noise Ninja Focus magic

 

The next morning (April 3, 2009), everyone was still in a happy mood from the great stargazing event the night before.  Although it wasn't the clearest sky, we were able to salvage the star party for the VIP guests to observe through the telescopes.  After all, isn't that what the "100 Hours of Astronomy" is all about?  After a hearty breakfast at our hotel, we had the rest of the morning to relax, or do a little sightseeing around town.  Philadelphia, as you know, is such as historical city with many museums and national attractions to choose from and visit.  We couldn't help but notice the famous Philadelphia Museum of Art building just down the street, whose steps were made famous in the Rocky movies.  Celestron Representative, Lance Lucero and I took a walk down Benjamin Franklin Parkway in the morning mist, which was actually reminiscent of the original setting in the movie, and yes, we did take a trot up the steps and did the whole Rocky reenactment like all the other tourists who were present there as well.  How could we resist?  We still had a couple of hours to spare, and we continued on our sightseeing tour to see the most iconic symbols of America - The Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.  By then, a low pressure system was moving into the city and rain began to fall from the sky.  It was light at first, but then it began to pour like no tomorrow with lightning and thunder!  Tourists didn't seem to mind much though, as lines were still long to enter into both sites.  "This isn't looking good" I said to Lance, as we flagged a taxi to take us back to the hotel.  The Membership Event's star party was planned for the evening, and it would be awful if it was cancelled, but we still kept our hopes up high.

By late afternoon, it was time to get ready to head back to the Franklin Institute to attend the Membership Event.  I had taken an afternoon nap, but by the time I woke up and opened the curtains, miraculously, Sunlight began to shine through the windows!  It appeared that the low pressure system had moved on out over the Atlantic, leaving clearing skies and windy conditions in its wake. "Yes!" I said, as any kind of clearing is better than no clearing at all.  Suddenly, a rogue cloud appeared out of nowhere and dropped a heavy downpour.  Within minutes, the cloud had passed through, but a decision was already made with the Franklin Institute's staff to cancel the star party.  It was truly disappointing to hear, but somehow, I had a gut feeling that most of unstable weather would out of the way by later that evening.  You could call it the power of positive thinking. 

             

From 6 P.M. to 7 P.M., the Membership Event took place in the Franklin Institute's planetarium with hoer' dervs served to the 250 plus guests who were in attendance.  Celestron had a table setup inside the planetarium where guests signed up for the raffle drawing that was scheduled to take place immediately following the lecture in the auditorium.  The prizes included a Travel Scope 70, SkyScout Personal Planetarium bundle and the grand prize - a NexStar 130 SLT computerized telescope.  At the same time, Celestron Representatives passed out IYA posters, pens and orange Frisbees.  Once again, these items proved to be very popular giveaways.  A staff member came by and whispered that the skies were clearing even more.  Soon, word began to circulate that the star party could be reinstated.  Sure enough, we stepped outside and saw not a single rain cloud near our location.  Our prayers were answered!  The star party was back on again, so while our Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill, was busily conducting the raffle drawing in the auditorium, East Coast Sales Manager, Ed McDonough and I made our way back to the rooftop to prepare the CPC 800 telescopes.  For added peace of mind, we took along plastic bags to cover the scopes in a moment's notice, just in case if any signs of moisture appeared, but luckily, none were felt.  Of course, it was quite windy on the rooftop, but as the stars began to emerge from the evening twilight, we were thrilled just to have clear skies.  Ed and I conducted the telescope's Sky-Align procedure and gave Franklin Institute staff member, Natasha Prime, an early peek into the heavens.  Her excitement to see the waxing Moon's craters and the nearly edge on appearance of Saturn rings pretty much summed up how the rest of the evening would unfold.  Franklin Institute members began streaming onto the rooftop for a night of star gazing, while other members checked out the Galileo Exhibit first before heading up to the rooftop.  Long lines soon formed as everyone were eager to see the views.  Occasionally, a few clouds would pass through, but for the next 2.5 hours, the sky was mostly clear for great city and celestial viewing.  In the end, low clouds began to form and blanketed the sky, and we decided to call it a night, but the star party was a huge success, as nearly everyone present had the opportunity to look through telescopes, which was the goal for our "100 Hours of Astronomy" event at the Franklin Institute. 

              

Nearly all of the Celestron Representatives departed for home the following morning, but Michelle and I stayed an additional day to attend the Public Grand Opening of the Galileo Exhibit.  We met up again with Gina Focareta, of the Franklin Institute, who helped make sure our company table was set up in the atrium entrance near the IMAX theater.  As the crowds arrived, guests signed up for the raffle drawing, and we passed out catalogs, Frisbees, pens, IYA posters, and proudly displayed and talked about the Official Products of the International Year of Astronomy - The SkyScout Personal Planetarium (IYA Limited Edition) and the new FirstScope.  It was just great seeing all the happy people, especially the children who enjoyed wearing our orange Frisbees on their heads.  Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer at the Franklin Institute and U.S. IYA Spokesperson, conducted the raffle drawing, along with Gina and a little help from "Galileo" himself.  Like the previous evening, the raffle prizes consisted of our new Travel Scope 70, a SkyScout Personal Planetarium Bundle and the grand prize - a NexStar 130 SLT computerized telescope!  A gentleman, who I spoke to just moments before, won the Travel Scope 70.  I seem to have a habit of talking to guests prior to a raffle drawing, and they end up getting their tickets drawn!  So far, it's happened 3 times in the last 2 years!  I kid you not!  The SkyScout bundle was won by a young lady, who's new to astronomy, and she got very excited once she learned what the SkyScout can do, and how she could learn about astronomy just by using the SkyScout.  She'll have a lot of fun for sure!  The NexStar 130 SLT was won by a young girl who just happened to come to the Franklin Institute after attending an Irish dance competition in the area.   You can imagine how surprised both she and her parents were when her raffle ticket number was called!  Congratulations to all the winners, and you certainly are all getting into the astronomy hobby at the most appropriate time - The International Year of Astronomy!

            

On behalf of Celestron, we would like to send out our most sincere gratitudes to everyone at the Franklin Institute for having us join you all for the unveiling of the "Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy" exhibit and to partner together to showcase our products to all your distinguished guests during your "100 Hours of Astronomy" event.  It was such a pleasure working with all of you and establishing a great working relationship, while making new friendships too.  It's simply priceless.  We look forward to a long partnership with your organization for many, many years to come.  Special thank you to Dr. Dennis Wint, President and CEO of the Franklin Institute; Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer, Planetarium Programs Director and Official U.S. IYA Spokesperson; Gina Focareta, Assistant Director of Development Corporate Relations; and Natasha Prime, Manager of Corporate Sponsorship.  We look forward to seeing you all again someday.  The International Year of Astronomy continues on.

 

	Welcome to the 4th issue of Celestron's 2009 Newsletter. As we continue the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, the focus of this issue is the part Celestron plays in the global astronomical community.... Introducing SkyScout IYA Edition Just in time for an official "kick off" of IYA festivities in Philadelphia, Celestron has announced the release of a (very) Limited Edition IYA2009 SkyScout. This version of SkyScout features the limited edition IYA Expansion card that contains detailed information regarding important IYA and Celestial events taking place each month throughout 2009. SPOTLIGHT: 100 Hours of Astronomy   100 Hours of Astronomy (100HA) was a tremendously successful global astronomy event that took place from 2nd to 5th of April with a sole purpose to expose as many people as possible to the timeless hobby of astronomy! Celestron sent out teams to three of the numerous events taking place around the world. Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA see photos »   Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, CA see photos »   Irvine Spectrum, Irvine, CA see photos » Across the pond, in Germany, our local distributor, Baader-Planetarium participated in a tremendously successful 100HA event held in the center of Munich. See Munich photos: Gallery 1 | Gallery 2 | Gallery 3 We have brought back priceless memories and awesome photos. Most importantly we made a few new friends and renewed our passion for the hobby. Read 100HA blogs from around the world on CelestronLife.com » You may also share your 100HA stories, images and even videos on CelestronLife.com NEW ON CELESTRON.com: FirstScope Update   The talented folks in our multimedia department have recently unveiled a trailer for the upcoming FirstScope Tour. BTW, did you know that... FirstScope is now available for purchase on Celestron.com We have just announced the accessory kit for FirstScope INSIDE CELESTRON: Community Relations   In 2008 Celestron launched an innovative community outreach program. There are two key aspects to the program, development of online communities (like CelestronLife and CelestronImages) as well as "boots on the ground", old fashioned human outreach. To accomplish the latter, the Community Relations department was formed. In this issue, we would like to highlight the great work done by these brave men and women led by our Community Relations Coordinator, Kevin Kawai. Check out Kevin's CelestronLife.com Profile and our Flickr Photo Album to see the awesome places their work has taken them and the wonderful people they met along the way. We really hope you've enjoyed reading this newsletter. Please submit your feedback here: http://www.celestronlife.com/blogs/entry/2009-Newsletter-Issue-4 Clear Skies! Celestron Marketing Team Event Calendar 400 Years of the Telescope... April 10 10 PM ET/PT PBS Channel “400 Years of the Telescope, A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought”.  A PBS documentary that will air in the United States nationwide on PBS April 10th at 10 PM ET/PT (check local listings). In addition to the PBS airing, the documentary will be shown at 750 planetariums around the world. read more » Yuri’s Night 2009 April 4-12 Worldwide Event Yuri’s Night is a celebration of humanity’s achievements in space. Everyone can participate, so come and join us in celebrating our past - and our future - in outer space! read more » Texas Star Party April 19-26 Prude Ranch, TX The 31st Annual Texas Star Party will be hosted on the magnificent Prude Ranch, a 3500 acre mile-high ranch located six miles northwest of Fort Davis on Highway 118... 12 miles on the same road from McDonald Observatory.... read more » Astroday 2009 May 02 Nationwide Astronomy Day is a grass roots movement to share the joy of astronomy with the general population - "Bringing Astronomy to the People." Celestron is giving away AstroMaster 70 AZ at each location. read more » ScopeX 2009 May 30 Johannesburg, South Africa Interested in Astronomy, sky-gazing, astrophotography, buying/building a telescope? Visit the astronomy event of the year... read more » C-Row Star-B-Q 2009 May 19 - 20 RepoGazer Observatory, Arizona The Huachuca Astronomy Club, in cooperation with Celestron and Starizona present: C-Row Star-B-Q at the RepoGazer Observatory (RGO), an All-Celestron Two-Day Star Party and BBQ in the High Southeastern Arizona Desert... read more »

Well, it's been a while since my last post but things have been rather busy, especially in regards to planning our main "100 Hours of Astronomy" event here in Levin, New Zealand.  If you haven't heard me say it before, Levin is a small town of around 20,000 people but the local astronomy club (Levin StarGazers) has had excellent results in attracting locals to our public star parties.

World Famous!

One of the public star parties that was held on Guy Fawkes last year was particularly successful and really helped put sleepy old Levin on the map.  The photo below was taken at this event (by Paul Moss - see www.astronomy.net.nz) and was picked up by Sky and Telescope magazine for their recent article on IYA2009 and 100HA events.  The photo has now been published in both the US and Australian editions of that magazine!  You can read the article here.  It is also being used as one of the 6 images for the official 100 Hours of Astronomy posters!

Worlds Largest Star Party!

Following on from our successes, the Levin StarGazers plan to hold the worlds largest star party on April 4th as part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy events that are happening worldwide!  Everybody in our district is being invited to come down and view Saturn through a telescope.  In addition to the main "Saturn-viewing" telescopes, there will be other group members showing other wonders in our skies, plus an information desk and a guest speaker giving presentations indoors.  My company is donating a $500 telescope to give away as a prize to some lucky member of the public too!  If the weather doesn't permit viewing, we have an inflatable cosmodome/planetarium that will be set up indoors for brief presentations to the public.

It should be a fantastic (and exhausting!) night.  Here's hoping the public come along in their hundreds!  The local newspapers and radio station have been very supportive in promoting the event, and the prize draw for the telescope will be done on live radio on the Monday following the event.

Wish us luck, and I hope that you are all planning wonderful events for the public too!

Regards, Mike

The long-awaited NexStar SE video is finally out.  We are very proud of it.  Hope you enjoy watching it too.

02-25-09

Well the Comet is at it's brightest and closest on the 24th and I am blessed with Hi Winds and Partly Cloudy sky, I did manage to get 3x6min frames to create a still, and I did get a few unprocessed frames of the Comet and Saturn in the Same Feild of View, but nothing worth processing

this is the still

 

But the Morning of the 25th (new moon) we are clear all night and I was able to grab 35 6 minute frames, but this time, I guided on the comet and not the local star feild, and now you can really see the speed this comet is moving

5:30pm 2-20-09...Got my satellite chart printed out from Heavens-above.com.,Weather's checked out an clear.Set the scope out in the backyard: Level,Time,Date,Align,left on Venus,had the whole "comp on dolly" up an running..I went back inside while scope tracks Venus,I had to run a 100' DSL cable in house,had my girlfriends kid help me out,she's now 14 years old an helps me look for satellites going 17,000mph just before dusk.  When all sudden a Meteoroid Struck!!   The Meteroid Now named "Erica Teen14" is lesson in treading lightly....(She's fine,no injuries,just a foot slip)made heck of mess.After all this. an the clean-up,the DSL cables ran,fiberglass washed off me,i head back to the scope...its still on venus.,.i put the CanonG10 in the 25x7mm lens mount an snap couple shots...   When Venus drops to low ,it goes behind my pool screen inclosure,Next idem up for bids,Orion Nebula!! I wasn't to thrilled with my first attemps at the Nebula with new Canong10 i bought week ago,with it having 14.7 meg pix an picture steadying,..   In Round two,found it,focused it went through All it's (CanonG10)Massive settings.Found i'd had the brightniess level all the way off an noise reduction on the first attemps in the photo above...lol...After couple test shootings,testing each of:ISO settings,focusing,faucal lengths,timed exposer rates,file size,ND OFF..which in all about 5 main setting that all can be programmed into a certain selection knob,single shots to time delayed muiltpul exposers as well...i Shot This!! on Universal Lens Mount!! 25mm lens...one Ir-cutoff filter..Nexstar8SE...       I was amazed...this with reducer,25x7mm adjustible lens on 25mm,400iso 15 second exoser at f/2.8 4" manual focused... I then packed up the "Comp on dolly" up an brought in ,leaving just the Nexstar8sE,G10 on lens mount with A/C power..Next up, Saturn....   Pretty much same as last time,i can't seem to manage adding a x2 barlow an lining it up in the G10's 3" rear viewer for larger end photo, i can see it streak by couple times but guess i'm to impatient to wait it out an not fully alignment proficient yet,that's the biggest pain in the butt with Lens Mount..Fully 25x7mm lens full zoomed with barlow x2 an cam mounted to it all,,its a needle threader..   The advantages this Cam mount system are: ONE small twist of the lens mount you can view what you like by eyeball,if you see something you like caputered, put the mount on ..Gently!!..make the proper settings on the camera's for what you've targeted,  an Snap..to the editing boards it goes when upload to computer instead having the whole computer mess along side with you,i can now just unplug a power cord pack-in/out or move the scope where ever ,all contained!!....after playing with Saturn,no joy called on the barlow attempt, time to hunt Lulin. Aimed the scope by red dotted starfinder half way in between Saturn an Spica..nadda..searched around some...nothing,  back inside, checked on-line star charts, back out to the scope,more hunting... Saw it!!,was expecting a more definitive object like fuzzy green star but only saw a light green toned blur/smudge..was happy to finally catch it, 3 days before its max viewing when it the closet the 24th feb.....to end this 5-6 hour scoping session off, the Moon came up, Cresant,  just like the Cartoon moon   "Man in the Moon"!!..  The big creator in the middle the moon gave the moon a nose...this was from just the G10 on small aluminum tripod....Blog 4 over done ...i'm clouded out till Monday..(probably same time this posted,webmaster jab,heh) It looks by the  Atlantic satellite loop i use from local news channels web-site clouds in route..doing a cloud free dance for 23-24th!!!   Clear Sky's!!!                 Bozo

Hello from the Sunshine State once again.  This month, for the first time ever, Celestron is attending the Florida Winter Star Party, here at Camp Wesumkee in the Florida Keys.  Celestron is being represented by Marketing Coordinator, Yasmine Rios; Principal Engineer, Danyal Medley; and Community Relations Coordinator, Kevin Kawai.  So far, the weather has been clear to partly cloudy, breezy and slightly humid, but the views of the ocean where the sea meets the sky is truly something to see.   Cars, trucks, RVs and trailers are now streaming into the campgrounds staking out claims of prime viewing locations along the beach.  For us, the Celestron tent is now set up, and we're ready to showcase some of our latest products, including the all new CGE Pro 1400 and CGEM 1100, as well as a NexStar 8 SE, SkyScouts, Speakers, Axiom and Ultima eyepieces, 1.25" and 2" Eyepiece kits.  And oh yes, we brought hundreds of our famous orange frisbees to give away too.  Frisbees are always a big hit for us at Star Parties wherever we go.  Being here on a tropical beach seems quite fitting, wouldn't you think?  Tonight, Danyal and I will be firing up both the CGE Pro and CGEM mounts to demonstrate the new All-Star Polar Alignment routine, while Yasmine will be handling the SkyScout.  Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast, but hopefully, it'll clear out by dusk.  Look for an observing report to follow soon. 

2009-02-19  18:27:01

This is probably my best animation so far, 45 total subs, right to daylight, there are many other intresting things to see along with the comet, mostly satellites, the Geosynchronous satellites appear to move much slower passing by in a matter of 4 frames, each frame is 3 minutes, and the 1min time between frames for transfer totals approx 15 minutes,

compared to other satellites that pass by in only a few seconds,

the passing clouds are the start of a 2 day weather system which was just starting to roll in,
this appear as reddish patches due to the light pollution around here...now it is snowing

 

 

Ok . . . I was wrong.  When if first got my NexStar 8SE I thought my house would be the perfect place to view and photograph the stars.  Wrong.  No matter how you slice it lit homes, street lights, town centers, factories, billboard advertising and car lights all contribute to light pollution.  Prior to getting my scope I didn't know what light pollution was (nor did I care to know).

Light pollution is a threat to not only astrophotographers and astronomers, but our species in general.  How you say?  Well, simply put we are civilized beings because of our advancement in knowledge and development of laws.  As to the former, we know what we know because of our ability to find things out.  We have learned and developed sophisticated astrophysics because of our ability to see into the stars.  Yes, you may not realize it but our knowledge of our universals laws and principles come from our ability to see out into the universe.  Bah humbug you say!  No really this is true.  If we couldn't see into the stars we wouldn't know about the Big Bang and the nature of our expanding universe.  Hubble would not have seen the red shift.  Einstein would not have been able to formulate the theory of relativity without our ability to see bended light near the corona of our sun during a total eclipse of the sun.  Had we been positioned anywhere else in the galaxy - say in one of the galactic bands or near the center we could not see other galaxies or even know that we are in a galaxy.  Our ability to continue to learn about our universe is dependent upon our ability to see into the heavens!

Thus back to my home.  As more and more people move down to Florida and plug into Florida Power & Light the less and less one can see clearly the heavens.  This revelation is very sad to me (particularly after my purchase of a telescope).  Now it seems I may have to invest in a case and drag my scope around Florida in search of a dark spot to see the sky.  How sad.